


The Future's Broken Past

by Shadowed_Chalice



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1106932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowed_Chalice/pseuds/Shadowed_Chalice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The battle against Madara never ends. An over powered Izagami is used and it resets the world into an infinite time-loop. They realize the time loop only an instant before it happens, but it is always too late- until this last time. </p>
<p>Though retired from ANBU the Third Hokage gives Kakashi the most sensitive mission of his career. It is nine months after the Uchiha Massacre and Kakashi is assigned as guard for a strange Shinobi who is an exact DNA match with the 8 year old sole survivor. This shinobi from the future could save the world. Kakashi sees that he needs to save himself first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue- Where  the Hokage would really like to retire

**Author's Note:**

> This story may contain spoilers up to the current chapter of the manga!

Unobserved by a human eye in a desolate corner of Lightning County, the air- no- _reality_ swirls chaotically. Creatures that call this place home startle in fear at this crazed phenomenon. A mere forty-one seconds after it starts, the swirling calms and a human body materializes and falls to the ground. Instantly reality snaps back into order and that empty corner of Lightning calms again.

This piece of land which has been destroyed and reconstructed an unfathomable amount of times now has the chance to never be destroyed again. In less than sixty seconds the eternal ring of fate is forever changed. 

 

******

 

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk and closed his eyes. He imagined the simple sounds of the forest rustling around him. Not sitting on a hard chair with work piled in front of him but on the old fallen tree that weathered many years and was just now beginning to show signs of decomposing. It had been too long since he had been able to just go out and be by himself for a few hours. Too long since his days and nights weren’t completely filled with trying to run a ninja village. He was too old and worn out to have to deal with all the pressure and stress that went along with being the Hokage. Days like today, when he longed most for the briefest of moments to himself, he thought about stepping down again. Not having to be cooped up in the office all day and most of the night. Being able to enjoy nature again and even, maybe, get to be around his grandchildren more. 

With a huff Hiruzen shrugged off the wistful feelings. He couldn’t step down. There were two candidates that he felt would be best to lead the village. Neither of whom would even consider taking up the mantle. If Hiruzen stepped down now, there was no doubt in his mind that Danzo would become the next Hokage. He didn’t like to think about Danzo. He hadn’t realized just how much power the man scooped out from under him. Hiruzen had, in the past, turned a blind eye to Danzo’s dealings as the man always did the less savory acts for the good of the village. Apparently he had been too lenient with his old teammate. This became clear to him when the man went against his wishes and pushed the Uchiha boy into going through with wiping out his family. Danzo may have felt it was the right thing to do- that there was no alternative-but he wasn’t the Hokage. There were things that could have been attempted. 

Some days Hiruzen wondered how Danzo had not considered the potential fallout from such an act. For nine months Fire country hung in the balance. Losing that many able bodied ninja- even unhappy ones- nearly lost them the village entirely. Hiruzen had to stretch his shinobi thin trying to cover the duties of the military police as well as the missions some of the deceased shinobi would have taken. Then he had to stretch them even thinner by increasing their presence on the borders of Fire as a show of strength to the neighboring countries who were curiously wondering just how weakened the Leaf Village was. Nine months and the delicate probes by the other countries were finally starting to lessen. Not a moment too soon, really. Hiruzen wasn’t sure how much longer they could have kept up the act.

Other days, like this day, when it was late afternoon and nothing urgent was taking up his attention, he knew that Danzo had considered the potential fallout from the actions he took all those months ago. Considered them and determined them the better alternative. And worse, Hiruzen couldn’t completely argue against it. But still, it would have been nice to be able to try alternatives. He truly believed it could have been avoided.

Hiruzen looked at a painting of a little bright yellow forest bird sitting on a branch. Its bright yellow color was highlighted by black touches on the tips of its wings. It was his favorite bird in the forest. It always chirped such a happy song and gave him peace of mind. It is exactly what he needs. A chance to clear his mind, peaceful solitude away from his responsibilities for a moment- not long, just enough to recharge. 

A sudden knock at the door shook Hiruzen from his thoughts. He quickly grabbed the nearest mission report from the stack that he was supposed to be reviewing. Adjusting his reading glasses on his face he squinted at the writing on the page. “Come in, Izumo” he answered.

His assistant, Izumo Kamizuki, cracked the door open and stuck his head through the opening. Hiruzen lowered the report and looked at Izumo over his glasses. Izumo didn’t give his usual despairing glance at the work piled on Hiruzen’s desk. Instead he had a slight frown on his face. 

“ANBU team Blue would like to debrief. The captain states it is a priority report.” 

Not urgent, Hiruzen thought, but priority. From what he could recall the ANBU team shouldn’t be back in Konoha yet. “Send them in.” 

Izumo disappeared behind the door. Two ANBU men entered in his place still in full mission gear and animal masks still firmly covering their faces. The two men knelt. 

“Please stand and report.”

The Bear faced ANBU, the captain, stood first and removed his mask. “Our Mission was to observe a series of meetings between prominent citizens from Earth and Lightning. These meetings were taking place in Lightning. While we were in Lightning Swallow sensed a strange surge of chakra I determined to be a priority to be investigated… Swallow?”

Swallow removed his mask as well. His face was tight as he looked at Hiruzen. “Kyuubi chakra, sir.”

Hiruzen didn’t let his surprise show on his face. Kyuubi chakra? That should be impossible. There was no word of anything amiss with Naruto.

“The surge of Chakra was a strange mix,” Swallow continued, “but all through it was the bitter flavor of Kyuubi. I will never forget what Kyuubi felt like.”

“We were the nearest unit to the location and we scouted the area. There were no disturbances other than the wildlife being spooked.” Bear said, “but they calmed quickly. Rabbit found the body of an unconscious shinobi. We determined it was more important to bring him home than observing the last meeting. We were followed until we made it out of Lightning. I don’t believe anyone knows for sure we were from Leaf.”

“You were correct in your assessment.” Hiruzen said. “Anything regarding Kyuubi chakra in other lands is very concerning. This shinobi you found?”

“We delivered him to Med-nin Tae and left Rabbit and Raccoon as guards.”

“Good, good.” Hirzuen murmured turning the report over in his mind while the exhausted men stood before him. “I will direct ANBU green to relieve your team. Right now your full responsibility is to get some rest and file your full Mission Report. You are dismissed.” 

Both men gave him a brief bow and put their ANBU masks back on. It was a testament to how tired they were that they left through the door. 

Izumo popped back in once they were gone. “Need anything?”

“Summon ANBU green.” Hiruzen said, and rubbed at this temple in thought while he looked at the mission scrolls scattered across his desk. “I will also need your help sorting through all mission reports from Lightning country and the surrounding areas as well.”

Just the thought of Kyuubi chakra being involved chilled him to the bone. 

***

There were a couple things Hiruzen made sure happened. The first was that Naruto was safe and still where he was supposed to be. The second was that ANBU green relieved the exhausted blue squad. Once those two things were settled. Hiruzen got down to work with Izumo’s reliable and invaluable help.

Izumo retrieved report after report while Hiruzen skimmed over each and every one of them looking for anything that may hint at what had happened. Some reports were more detailed than others, some full of boring political crap, and many made him think that in the future there might be a need for a few refreshers courses in acceptable handwriting for his Jounin. However, in the three hours he poured over the reports while waiting for word on their strange shinobi Hiruzen found absolutely nothing that hinted at anything strange going on in Lightning or the surrounding countries.

Well, maybe not completely nothing. Jiyara sent a missive stating that Orochimaru left the group he had been tagging around with and was in the area, but with how closely Jiyara was keeping tabs on Orochimaru, he would have alerted Hiruzen about anything Kyuubi related immediately. None of the other reports even hinted at any unusual movement in Lightning country. He didn’t want to involve Intelligence yet, but it was looking more and more like he was going to need to. No doubt Inoichi Yamanka would be irritated with his reluctance to involve them. 

“Hokage-sama? Izumo told me to come on in…”

Med-nin Tae stood in the door way with her black hair twisted on top of her head in a tight bun. Not a speck of gray graced her hair despite her age. He was pretty sure she dyed it. There was something about med-nins and their resistance to the signs of aging. She was his most trusted Med-nin in the hospital. She had the highest clearance level of her peers and kept him in shape.

“Yes, I am most curious to hear your report.” Especially as he was getting nowhere with the research he was doing. 

Med-nin Tae entered the room fully. Hiruzen gestured to the seat across from his desk. Tae smiled gratefully and slid into the seat and started her report. 

“At 4:20pm an unknown ninja came to be under my care. I did a full medical evaluation. This ninja is approximately 16 to 18 years old. Old healed wounds indicate that this is an experienced ninja. There were also fresh minor wounds to indicate that he was recently in a skirmish of some kind, however, the only current injury of any concern is severe chakra exhaustion and damage to his Chakra Pathways. A special healing jutsu was placed on him when he was discovered. This justu is meant to keep a body in a coma like state so it is able to self-heal. The jutsu was used with dual purpose - to keep him unconscious during travel and the attending med-nin feared the severe chakra depletion had the potential to be life threatening. I find the body is self-healing exceptionally well and I feel that the ninja will make a full recovery.” 

The Med-nin paused for a moment, then continued on, “It is my belief that this ninja is of the Uchiha bloodline”.

“What makes you believe this?”

Tae motioned to her eyes, “The way the Chakra Pathways lead to the eyes. It could be another Dojutsu user, but along with other physical features I am sure that it is not.”

Hiruzen frowned in thought. An Uchiha? Was that possible? The Uchiha clan had kept close tabs on their offspring. After the massacre all of the Uchiha had been accounted for, there were only two living Uchiha left- both much younger than 16. The youngest one still resided in the village. So where did this mysterious Uchiha come from? And what did this Uchiha have to do with that surge of Kyuubi chakra? This situation was getting stranger and stranger the more he learned. Along with more and more concerning. Uchiha and Kyuubi- not a good mix. 

“Are you certain of this?” He asked, though he trusted the med-nin’s judgment absolutely. 

“As certain as I can be.” She replied. “I will run a DNA test to verify. ” 

He nodded in approval. “When do you expect him to gain consciousness? ”

“Anywhere from 3 to 10 days, I would guess closer to 7 days than three.” She hesitated then added, “We can force consciousness after 4 days safely.”

“Unfortunately we may have to make it sooner rather than being able to wait for later.” Hiruzen replied looking up at the picture of the song bird on his wall. “There are too many questions. Hopefully, from him, we can get the answers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really nervous about posting this. I have written and re-written this chapter well over a dozen times trying to figure out how I wanted to start this story. I've then read over this chapter probably a million more times. Please, please, let me know if you notice any errors in this story- I would love the chance to fix them.
> 
> The idea for this story started picking at me in Sasuke and Itachi's last meeting. Next chapter will probably make it obvious when I started writing this. **Important!** This story could very possibly spoil anyone who is not current in the manga.


	2. Wherein things become strange

Five days after the strange shinobi was brought to the hospital he still remained unconscious.

Tae sat on the roof of the hospital during a break from her rounds and tried to force herself to relax. She had been expecting the summons to force the shinobi to consciousness for over twenty-four hours now. Every hour she didn’t get the summons made her more and more anxious. At her age it was absolutely silly.  

She knew Hiruzen would not wait until the boy gained consciousness on his own. They had even more questions about him now than when he first appeared. She also had moved her estimation of him gaining consciousness on his own farther back. Between the impressive mastery the ANBU med-nin had of the Healing Coma jutsu and the shinobi’s own self healing ability there was no doubt in her mind that, if given the chance to wake naturally, he would remain unconscious for the entire ten days. At the end of the ten days in the Healing Coma he would be able to hop right up with no more ill effects than someone who had decided to lounge around in bed for a couple weeks.

Annoyed with how her thoughts were falling back into the same rut _again_ Tae forced her mind away from the unknown shinobi to think about her newest patients. Two mothers-to-be and a Genin with a broken leg. While the two mothers came in due to health issues, their babies were doing outstandingly well. Tae doubted that there would be any complications with their pregnancy, but she was going to keep an eye on them for a while longer. She going to enjoy having them as her patients while she could- maternity cases didn’t generally come to her. Even after all she has seen while slowly shuffling her way to an advanced age, new forming life was something that would always amaze her.

The injured Genin was another case altogether.  Mostly because the boy brought along a Jounin-sensei to argue with. While as a med-nin she had a lot of authority when it came to a shinobi’s health, if it wasn’t life or career threatening, the Jounin-sensei all but owned their subordinates- much to her frustration at times.

“Tae-san?”

Tae startled at the sudden voice and turned to see a raccoon-masked woman was standing at her shoulder. Equal amounts of irritation and relief filled her as the spike of adrenaline faded away. Irritation with herself for allowing this whole mess to distract her so much she didn’t notice the ANBU woman arrive and relief she no longer had to wait.

“Ah, Hokage-sama is ready?” She asked as she stood and brushed imaginary dirty off her thighs to give her self a second to compose herself.

The masked woman nodded in reply. 

“Well, we can’t keep him waiting then.”

The ANBU poofed away and Tae made her way to the room in a slower, more conventional manner. If Tae did anything other than walk through the hospital it would draw attention. Attention was not something she wanted. The ANBU presence hadn’t been of notice to most in the hospital so far and Tae didn’t want to be the one to change that. 

When she entered the hospital room she saw three ANBU standing guard around the bed of the unconscious ninja. The raccoon-masked woman stood next to the door. Hiruzen was also standing patiently against the wall just inside the door. Tae ignored them all and went to check on her patient. The quick diagnostic she did proved what she knew she would see. Light scars from old healed wounds, extremely low chakra and what used to be heavily damaged chakra pathways which were now nearly healed.

Tae nodded to herself satisfied with what she found. She didn’t actually need to do the diagnostic on her patient, but it helped her mentally prepare herself for what she was going to have to do. It was tricky waking someone who was placed in a Healing Coma. The Jutsu was meant to keep a person unconscious until they were fully healed and the body resisted awakening as it didn't want to waste precious resources on being conscious.

“Are you ready Hokage-sama?” She asked, turning to the older man.

Hiruzen inclined his head in assent and gestured for the ANBU to leave. The ANBU silently followed his order. For the first time since the strange shinobi had been brought to the hospital there were no ANBU to stand guard in the room. Not that there was any concern with the Hokage standing calmly against the wall. However there was a good reason to have the ANBU gone that didn't have anything to do with the room becoming a little too crowded. There was only one way to wake a shinobi in a Healing Coma placed as well as the one on their visitor and it only worked on talented shinobi. It was simple: create a life threatening situation that kicked in the body’s self-preservation instinct. Having an ANBU team standing around being menacing would not help things go smoothly.

Unfortunately Tae couldn’t fake the killing intent needed to force consciousness- she was a healer at heart and mind- she had to do this the less than optimal way. Not putting it off a moment longer she took a deep breath and began molding her chakra for the only jutsu she knew might work. A complex unwieldy water jutsu that would cause organ failure. A much harsher technique than the poison removal technique that it originated from and is more common to her line of work. 

The reaction was immediate. The young man jerked straight up, eyes flashing bright red and her jutsu was rebuffed before she could dissolve it. Almost the same instant a choked cry of pain passed through his lips and his hands went to his head.

Familiar with working with well trained shinobi when they were on their less than best days Tae immediately let her chakra go and relaxed herself as much as possible to make herself less of a threat. Though there wasn’t much chance the boy could do anything even if she were, the less anxious and threatened he was the better this would go. She looked to the Hokage and he nodded back. It was time to see if he could get his answers.

 

***

For a brief instant, Sasuke could not  _breathe_. The pain that seared though his body was unlike anything he had experienced before and he had a lot of experience with pain. Everything hurt, it felt like he had been burned on the inside as well as the out. But worst of all was the massive migraine flashing through his brain freezing him still. It was all he could do to breathe through it. Every breath caused pain to flare along his body.

“Don’t try to use any chakra.” A female voice demanded softly, “You have severe charka exhaustion along with light damage to your pathways. At this time attempting to use chakra will only make matters worse.”

Sasuke had near complete chakra depletion before, but never with this kind of pain. It had to be the pathway damage. After a minute of careful breathing the pain faded to nasty unpleasant ache. Once the pain was manageable Sasuke became aware enough to notice the Third Hokage leaning against the wall near the entrance to the generic hospital room.

Sasuke brow furrowed slightly. The Third Hokage?

“Do you mind telling us your name?” The Med-nin asked gently.

“Sasuke Uchiha.” He said absently in reply as he studied the old man by the door. His skin was wrinkled in age, but didn't have cracked paper skin. His eyes were clear and not black and gold. This old man in front of him wasn't a person brought back by Edo Tensei. This man was very much alive.

The Third was studying him in silence as well. Sasuke forced all expression from his face as he mentally scrambled to figure out what happened. He summoned Aoba and then the last thing he remembered after that was…

 _closed eyes/black kunai in a gloved hand_ _/_ _black rods/scarred face/tree/glint of light reflecting off a sword/ tag on a kunai/black flames/white hair…_

“Sasuke Uchiha is 8 years old.” The Hokage finally said, breaking the silence.

Sasuke blinked startled from his thoughts. “Am I?” he asked and tried to force his scattered fragmented mind to the present. _Naruto on a giant toad and Sakura on a giant slug._

The jumbled mess his memories were in despite the Sharingan was... worrying. The Sharingan should store all memories with picture perfect clarity, but somehow everything after summoning Aoba was foggy and disjointed- a bunch of images and feelings that did not connect. It made his head throb to even try to think about them.

“Yes.” The Hokage replied.

A sliver of a memory fragment shone brightly from the pile. It wasn’t a complete memory- just a feeling- really. _Desperation_ and _horrible realization_. Sasuke’s eyes unfocused on the present as he tried to capture the memory and make sense of it through the throbbing pain it caused. The memory slipped away from him and another appeared in its place. Cold certainty filled him with this memory.

_Time-loop, they were in a time-loop and time was about to reset._

Fighting the Juubi turned into a time-loop.

Sasuke’s breath caught. The Third Hokage was standing in front of him alive.  _"Sasuke Uchiha is eight years old"_. If he was eight years old then… how was he missed by the time-loop? How did he end up in the same time as when he was eight years old?

It was impossible.

It was amazing.

It was… actually kind of absolutely rage inducing. It  _would_  be his luck to miraculously be sent back in time ( or time caught up to him with it being a time loop, but, whatever) and the time he ended up in was a year, or less, after Itachi slaughtered their family and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

Grabbing the anger Sasuke mentally put it into a box and shoved it away to deal with later. It was already difficult to keep his thoughts focused with the mess his recent memories were in. He didn’t need emotion to cause more problems.

“Interesting.” He said when he realized that the Hokage and Med-nin were patiently gazing at him waiting for a reply to their revelation.

“We ran a DNA test. It is a perfect match for the 8 year old.”

Sasuke blinked. His DNA was still the same? Even with the Snake and Zetsu that had inhabited his body off and on over the last couple years? That was oddly relieving. However the statement wasn’t made to reassure him, it was a demand for answers. The problem was that Sasuke was currently at a loss of how to explain anything in a reasonably coherent manner. Or even if he wanted to.

“It appears,” Sasuke said finally, deciding the truth was the only answer he could give, “That I may have gotten misplaced in time.”

Silence filled the room. The Third moved away from the wall and closer to the bed. “What do you mean by ‘misplaced in time’?”

“I don’t know how it happened.” He replied slowly. “My memory from before waking here has been fractured- trying to remember what happened is…unpleasant.” He admitted to stall for time while he considered what he was going to say.

The Med-nin tapped her lips. “That is not an uncommon symptom of damaged chakra pathways that run through the brain. As you heal the pain should fade. Sometimes the memories can sort themselves out sometimes they are lost forever.”

Sasuke also knew that it meant no one could enter his mind to force the information from him as it would be more treacherous for them than it would be for him. The scattered memories would be a dangerous minefield for anyone trying to pry into his mind. Running into a shard of memory that has no attachment or connection to any other memory could easily get the person lost. Not that they could get anything from attempting to force their way into his mind anyway. He was able to resist Itachi and once able to trap Orochimaru after all.

“I suppose you could say I am from a future that no longer exists. There was a time-loop and somehow I ended up here.”

“What can you tell us about your time?” The Hokage asked. His voice, posture and facial expressions didn’t change. Sasuke couldn’t tell if the man believed him or not. “What are your intentions now you are here?”

“My intentions?”

What were his intentions? He didn’t know how he got here or why he was here. For the first time in his life, Sasuke was at a complete loss as to what to do. He had no plan. He always had a plan- or at least a desperate objective to meet. When he was young it was to make his dad proud of him and be like Itachi. Then after Itachi killed everyone it was to kill Itachi. Once Itachi was dead it was to kill those responsible for using his brother. When the main culprits were gone his next step was to destroy the heartless village that threw Itachi away after all he did for it.

Sasuke still hated the village system that caused the death of his clan and caused his brother to do the unthinkable. However, after his discussion with Edo Tensei Itachi and the four dead Hokages he understood what a village was. He understood what a shinobi was. He saw his brother’s ideal and his new objective had become stopping Madara from making Itachi’s sacrifice all for nothing. Once that was over he figured he would decide who he, Sasuke Uchiha, was and what he was going to do.

It was strange to think that at this very moment- less than a mile away- he was sitting in a classroom learning how to become a ninja and working on solidifying his hatred of his big brother. The brother whom was currently spying for the village.

Itachi was alive.

Sasuke bit back the laugh that threatened to come out. It wasn’t a good laugh.

Itachi was alive, but it wasn’t his brother. His brother was 9 years older and dead by a combination of disease and Sasuke’s own hand. Sasuke’s entire past and world was gone. Nine years of striving and struggling poofed away like it never happened. Only Sasuke was left.

Sasuke didn’t have a plan. It was impossible to come up with a plan when you are still reeling from the realization that everything is different. He had spent so much of his life trying to throw away bonds and people. Look at him now. He succeeded. Everyone he knew and who knew him was gone and there was no getting it back.

But that  _was_  him sitting in the classroom. That  _was_  his brother all alone trying to protect the village. This  _was_  the village his brother sacrificed everything for.

Sasuke pressed a hand to his head as if the action would stop the spinning of his thoughts. There was no plan, there was no anything. Simply all he had was to continue moving forward and let the cards fall as they may.

Mind settled and calmed, Sasuke let his hand drop from his head and looked up into the Hokage’s eyes.

“I cannot tell you what my full intentions are in this time because I do not know. I think the situation in my time, before I came here is something you would liked to avoid. I will tell you what I can of this situation, but there are a couple things I would like to make clear first.”

The Hokage nodded his assent.

" Just by my being here, my past- your future- for the good or the ill is irreversibly changed. What information I have may no longer hold true.”

It was an obvious statement, but, to Sasuke, it was important to make clear.

“Next, I am not my brother.”

The Hokage blinked and a slight furrow appeared in his brow. So Sasuke clarified. “I do not have a love and need to protect this Village that transcends death.  _I_  do not have any love for it at all.”

The tightening of the Hokage’s mouth clearly said,  _You know_. Sasuke tilted his head a fraction to reply back  _Yes._  The med-nin was completely confused a little concerned by both the words and the silent exchange.

"Along with that-  _Danzo_ ," Sasuke couldn't stop the pure hatred he felt for the man from coating his voice when he said his name, "Must be kept away from me. He might be trying to protect the Leaf in his own way, but if we cross paths I cannot promise that I will not kill him on sight. I've killed him before and now that I know his disgusting and depraved techniques it will be much easier to kill him the second time."

The Third became very still. Dangerous even. Sasuke ignored it.

“Which brings me to the last. I will do what I can to prevent the time-loop." Sasuke had no desire to repeat his life for all eternity- even if he was unaware he was living it over and over, "And, as I said, I'll give you what information I can about the situation so you may have a chance of avoiding it. However, if you are going to get a rid of me you should do it soon. Once I get my strength back it may very well be impossible.”

The Hokage was silent for a long moment while he contemplated what Sasuke said. There was a touch of sorrow that came from the man that Sasuke didn't understand. What about this would cause him sorrow?

“No.” The Hokage said, “You belong here until you decide otherwise. You are free to leave the village if you so desire. However,” his voice hardened until it had a cutting edge, “if you harm the Leaf or work against the Leaf in _any_ manner, I will not go easy on you and you  _will_  be hunted down.”

Sasuke stilled and his mind went to the four Hokages brought back to answer his questions. His mouth twitched up into a smile despite himself. “You said you were the most indulgent- the softest- of the Hokages. You were right.” Letting the amusement go, Sasuke looked the Third in the eye, “Once I determine what I am going to do- what my intentions are- I will let you know.” Sasuke promised.

The Third gives him a steady look in return. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Closing his eyes, Sasuke took a deep breath and released it. His body ached, his head ached and he is absolutely completely exhausted. "Let me start with the Akatsuki and go from there."

 


	3. In which Kakashi makes his first appearance and his future is forever altered

Hiruzen looked down at the Academy training field and watched the children go through their drills. He contemplated the situation he now found himself in.

A group of missing-nin seeking the tailed-beasts. A monster created by pulling all the tailed beasts from their human containers and putting them back together to create the mindless creature they originated as. A man calling himself Madara pulling the strings. The true -dead- Madara brought back using the Second’s morbid technique. The fourth shinobi war with the five villages working together toward a common goal.

It was all so impossible to believe.

When Hiruzen first set eyes on the unconscious face of the teenage boy there was no doubt in his mind that he was an Uchiha. The boy had a striking resemblance to Mikoto. When he found that the 17 year old was a perfect DNA match he suspected… well, he wasn’t completely sure what he suspected- possibly some forbidden genetic experiment. Time travel never crossed his mind. There were some jutsu that messed with time/space, but actual time travel was impossible. However, some of the things the teen said lined up with some extremely classified information he had recently received. Most of which regarding the group Orochimaru temporarily joined and Jiyara was spying on, but others such as events in the controlled and tight-lipped Rain country lined up as well. Not to mention the knowing of what truly happened to the Uchiha clan.

Laughter rang out as a group of children scattered to hide from their sensei. A game of hide and seek to hone their evading skills. It was peaceful now, but many of these children may no longer be alive if the potential future came to pass. Little hapless Naruto and the beast he kept locked inside him to keep the village safe. Even forbidding a single word of the secret he contained from slipping out would not protect him.

 _What may potentially happen is beneficial to know_ , Hiruzen thought, _but the true value of the time-travelling shinobi’s knowledge is in what has already happened and is happening at this moment_.

The more Hiruzen knew the better he will be able to protect the village. Knowledge is power. The Uchiha was uncommonly well informed of the maneuverings and secrets of the Hidden Villages. Hiruzen was sure that he barely scratched the surface of what the Uchiha had locked away in his mind.

Below him the found children help their sensei find the other hidden children. A subtle reminder that those who were allies may turn in a moment’s notice and to always be on guard. No reminders are needed for Hiruzen to know he needed to be careful how to proceed with this new situation he found himself in. The first step was to get the Uchiha out of the hospital and get the right person to guard him.

Luckily the first step was the simplest step. There was only one person he’d choose as a guard.

 

***

When Kakashi entered the gates of Leaf he was hungry, dirty and tired. All he wanted to do was go take a bath. Thirty seconds after he entered the gates of Leaf a Chunin was standing before him with a summons to Hokage Tower.

“Thank you for notifying me.” Kakashi said blandly staring at the Chunin.

The man stared back. When Kakashi still failed to move the man scowled at him. “I don’t know why you are being summoned, but you need to present yourself right away.”

“Hmm…okay.” Kakashi said and started walking …away from Hokage Tower.

The Chunin squawked. “The summons!”

“Don’t worry,” Kakashi said, waving a hand in dismissal at the Chunin. “I’ll be right there.”

He could feel the Chunin glaring at this back as he walked away. After a breath or two he heard the Chunin turn and stomp away. Luckily this Chunin was one of the easy to deal with types and not one of the overzealous ones who attempted to trail after him and harass him until he followed orders in a timelier manner. There was a place Kakashi needed to go before he went to the Tower- a couple of people he needed to greet. The summons didn’t come to him via an urgent delivery system so he figured he could make one stop on the way.

The memorial stone was exactly as he left it. His eye easily picked out the special names amongst the many. He didn’t say anything when he got there, just silently apologized for being gone for so long. He had five back to back missions that kept him gone over two months straight. The mission requirements were sent to him out in the field. He was happy to be home for once- though it looked like it might not be for long.

Kakashi didn’t take too much time at the memorial stone before obeying the summons. When he entered Hokage Tower he found it was not nearly as busy as he left it. Two months ago there was still a light frantic energy as other villages were still heavily testing the Leaf to find out just how much the loss of the Uchiha weakened the Village. The Hokage did an excellent job hiding just how weakened they truly were. Still, it was by the skin of their teeth they were able to keep other villages at bay and not start another war the Leaf didn’t have the manpower to fight.

While taking his time going through Hokage Tower it was clear to Kakashi that the Hokage succeeded and things were starting to relax. In fact, the everyday workers in the Tower were positively chatty.

_“He shouldn’t be allowed to just come here as he pleases.”_  
 _“He shouldn’t be allowed to be in the academy.”_  
 _“Why do we have to put up with him?”_

If they didn’t have anything to do but complain about Minato’s son, then things had definitely calmed down. However, Kakashi was duly impressed the workers were brave enough to complain about the boy in Hokage Tower right under the Hokage’s nose.

When Kakashi made it to the top level of the tower the Hokage’s assistant frowned at him. Kakashi didn’t know why the man was so irritated with him; he took less than half an hour to answer the summons this time. Plus he hadn’t had a chance to get his book out yet. With a grumble under his breath the assistant knocked on the door to the Hokage’s office and announced Kakashi’s presence. After a moment he pulled his head out of the room and gestured to Kakashi to go in.

To Kakashi’s surprise the second he entered the office the Hokage stated, “I have a mission for you.”

It wasn’t surprise that there was a mission- that was obvious as Kakashi’s last mission wasn’t so important that the Hokage would require further details- but that the Hokage didn’t start out with any pleasantries. The man usually beat around the bush for a minute or two asking how he was doing and such. Not so this time.

Kakashi would have liked the chance to sleep a bit and maybe just stay home for a day or two, but getting sent on another mission wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t like he really had anything else to do.

“What is the mission?”

“Highly classified guard duty.” Sarutobi said.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Highly classified? “That sounds like ANBU.”

“You were once ANBU.”

“I was forcible retired almost a year ago.” One year, two months, five days. Not that Kakashi was counting. He was too busy practicing the hobby the Hokage suggested he pick up when he gave him his ANBU retirement orders. As the Hokage told him at that time, reading was a _respectable_ and time consuming hobby.

“This is a very sensitive mission. The ninja you are set to guard may have information of use to the Leaf, but he may also be very dangerous to the Leaf at the same time. He is currently our ally. The first couple of weeks of duty you will be there to prevent harm befalling the young man. He has chakra exhaustion and is weak as a kitten. After the first couple of weeks you will need to keep an eye on him and make sure he does not show signs of wanting to harm the Village- I suspect he may be a very capable ninja.”

Sarutobi pulled out a paper that appeared to be a medical sheet. “His name is Sasuke Uchiha.”

“Uchiha?” Kakashi asked in surprise. He didn’t think there were very many of those running around anymore.

“Yes.” Sarutobi looked at the paper then handed it Kakashi, “He claims during a battle he was sent back into the past.”

Sent back to the past? Kakashi looked at the paper. DNA analysis. From what Kakashi could see, all the markers in sample A matched sample B exactly. “Sample A comes from the teenager in the hospital; Sample B comes from the boy currently attending class at the Academy. You, Med-Nin Tae, and I are currently the only ones to know about this.”

That was unbelievable- but Kakashi could think of no way for someone who had complete chakra exhaustion to trick a med-nin and mimic the results.

“Are you willing to accept this mission?”

“Yes.” Kakashi said without a moment of hesitation. When did he ever not accept a mission?

“Good!” The Hokage handed him a mission scroll. “You begin tomorrow morning. Get some rest.”

Kakashi raised his hands to complete the seals to quickly escape the office when Sarutobi motioned him to wait a second.

“Ah, one more thing.” The look in the Hokage’s eyes were very serious. “Don’t let the Uchiha and Danzo cross paths.”

****

 

A nice long bath and ten hours of sleep later, Kakashi was feeling much more refreshed and the upcoming potentially long-term assignment wasn’t nearly as daunting. He did a quick cleaning of his home to make it livable again after his previous two month long absence and made another visit to dearly departed friends before finally making his way to the hospital. He took his time as he moseyed down the halls. His mask helped filter out the worst of the annoying antiseptic smell- but hospitals were never pleasant to be in. When he made it to the room in the less accessible parts of the hospital he knocked on the door.

“Ah, this would be him,” Sarutobi said on the other side. “Come in, please.”

Kakashi slouched his way into the room. The bed bound patient’s eyes went from Sarutobi to Kakashi. The dark, nearly black, eyes widened and indescribable emotion crossed the teen’s face. Kakashi didn’t know if the emotion was bad or good, but it certainly was visceral. The face and eyes immediately went blank as stone.

Kakashi slouched against the wall, hands in his pockets. “Hello, I am Kakashi Hatake. I’ve been assigned to you.”

“I will be in touch, Uchiha-san.” The Hokage said. He nodded to Kakashi and walked out the door. Both Kakashi and the teen watched him leave.

Kakashi then turned his attention to his charge. The kid was still staring at the entry way, face blank. Kakashi listened to the silence of the room for three minutes watching the dark haired teen do a pretty good impersonation of an inanimate object- the occasional blinking and light rise and fall of his chest kept him from having a perfect score. It was very clear to Kakashi that he was being ignored. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his latest book and flipped to the page he was on.

Kakashi made it two and half chapters before he carefully closed the book and looked up at the teen who had yet to looked at him again since he first came into the room. Kakashi had no idea what the Uchiha was thinking- his face was completely blank. Kakashi slipped his book back into his pocket. Maybe the Uchiha wasn’t thinking at all. The Hokage said he was possibly from a future time and had potentially useful information, not that he had any brain cells.

The reason Kakashi put his book away entered the room after a brief, perfunctory knock. The tall older woman strode to the bed without a glance Kakashi’s way. Med-Nin Tae, Kakashi presumed.

The Med-nin ‘hmm’ed as she looked over her patient and worked various medical jutsu. Finally after a little over five minutes she stepped back with a satisfied look on her face. “Your chakra pathways have healed fine. It will probably be another week before you will be able to do even an Academy level jutsu- but there is no lasting damage to the pathways. I trust you are talented enough to know your limits and will not over extent yourself needlessly?” She asked the Uchiha. The seventeen year old nodded.

“Good.”

She turned to Kakashi, “He is being released tomorrow. However, someone will need to watch for signs of delayed chakra distress. I don’t expect it to be a problem, but that is something the affected cannot notice in themselves.”

“I know the symptoms and will keep an eye out for it.” Kakashi said.

The med-nin nodded. “I will see you tomorrow then.”

The two politely bid her goodbye.

Kakashi took a moment to watch the Uchiha. This time the Uchiha looked back- the stone façade softened to a thoughtful expression.

“The Hokage has acquired a temporary apartment for you to stay in for the time being.” Kakashi said since he finally had he Uchiha’s attention. “As I am sure he already told you, you will be watched until you are considered safe. It is inevitable that other sensed you arriving and will be trying to figure out what happened.”

“I understand.”

Kakashi was sure he did. Safe meant both kept safe and keep others safe from him.

“I will be with you during the day and ANBU will keep an eye on the apartment during the night.”

The Uchiha nodded his acceptance- not that he could do anything else being nearly completely out of chakra as he was. Soon silence fell over the room again and the Uchiha zone back out. Biting back a sigh Kakashi pulled back out his book. It appeared that this was going to be one long boring mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry I am late with this chapter. I completely lost track of time. This was actually the very first chapter of this story that I wrote when I was still toying with the idea of whether I would write it or not. 
> 
> Again, please point out any mistakes you notice so I can correct them.


	4. Wherein Kakashi is bored out of his mind and does something about it

Kakashi wasn’t an excitable person by any means. He had more patience than most shinobi. He was a laidback take the day as it comes kind of person. However, if this mission kept on like it was, he was going to become insane from boredom in the very near future. He liked to read, but four days straight of doing almost nothing but reading? That was a little too much, even for him. He had never been a fan of mediating, but he had many hours of mediating accomplished as well. 

His charge spent the most of the first day and half out of the hospital sleeping and spent nearly all of his waking hours since either meditating to gain back chakra or trying to work on understanding his scrambled memories. Kakashi couldn’t really tell the difference between the two. In frustration on the third day Sasuke told him he felt that there was something important lost in his scrambled memories that he was trying to figure out. Other than that one slip he had been mostly silent the entire time. 

You would think babysitting someone from the future would be interesting. The most exciting part of this mission was when the day was done and Kakashi got to go home. Which, of course, didn’t happen until after he gave the Hokage his report. Last night he gave the Third a detailed description of the plots of the two books he read. The Third just smiled kindly at him and gave him a new scroll full of questions to deliver to Sasuke the next morning. Ugh.

Kakashi glared at the words on the page. If the whole assignment went like this, he would get through all the good books he owned before the week was over. His favorite book store had a thing against selling books to dogs- even talking ninja dogs. When he ran out of good books he would be stuck reading the badly written raunchy novels he bought to display in public to irritate the Hokage. If he was stuck reading only them he just might actually gouge out his remaining eye. 

He really needed to learn how to be more discriminating in the missions he accepts. 

Lowering his current book, Kakashi watched Sasuke mediate for a moment- well, attempt to meditate appeared to be the more accurate evaluation. It seemed even Sasuke was starting to get twitchy from doing nothing. 

“You know,” Kakashi said thoughtfully to the dark haired young man, “there are techniques to help you build back your lost chakra from chakra exhaustion.” He was very familiar with those techniques himself. Before he got the Sharingan he had average to slightly above average chakra reserves. After the Sharingan and its constant drain he had slightly smaller than average chakra reserves. 

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked up at him. “You are willing to teach me?”

“Sure, it will give us something to do.” 

“I would say ‘once a teacher always a teacher’ but you haven’t been a teacher yet.” 

Kakashi raised his uncovered eyebrow, “Me, a teacher?” 

Sasuke hesitated and Kakashi narrowed his eye in response. “I become a teacher.” He can’t imagine it ever happening. He is not all that good with people in general. With kids he imagined he’d be even worse. 

Sasuke’s dark eyes were unreadable as he looked up at Kakashi from where he was positioned on the floor. “You were the Jounin-sensei of my Genin team. We were the first team you ever passed.”

“I’m sorry,” Kakashi said blankly, completely unable to wrap his mind around the thought, “I would be a horrible sensei.” 

“No,” Sasuke replied, voice distant, mind clearly drifting away from the present. “You did what you could. I was a… difficult student. I wonder if you got stuck with us because you were the only one left in the village with the Sharingan. They thought you were the only one who might be able to handle the Kyuubi and teach me how to use my Sharingan if I managed to awaken it. Sakura got the short end of the stick.”

… kyuubi? Kakashi immediately shutdown the line of thinking that was stirred hearing that in Sasuke’s time he was in charge of Forth’s son. Instead, he focused on prying more information from his suddenly chatty charge. 

“You passed the bell test.” While Kakashi hadn’t been forced to take on a Genin team yet he knew as long as the Leaf didn’t fall into war it would be coming soon. He also knew exactly how he would test the kids forced upon him.

“No. We failed horribly.” Sasuke said with a slight smile. The first smile Kakashi had seen on him since they met. “I think we accidently passed afterward. Naruto was tied to a log because he got hungry and snuck away to eat lunch. You were going to give us a second chance at getting a bell. I would like to say that I helped Naruto because I realized I wouldn’t have a chance at getting anywhere near a bell without him being his idiot self and distracting you- because it was true- but the real reason was because I couldn’t stand his noisy stomach.” 

The slight smile faded into a contemplative expression. Kakashi stored the conversation away in his mind to go over later and moved to the middle of the floor and sat down. With story time over they might as well start on something useful- there was no reason to let his charge remain depressively introspective if Kakashi wasn’t going to learn anything from it. 

“Let me show you that chakra building technique.”

Sasuke rose from where he was previously attempting to meditate and moved to sit in front of him. 

“Chakra exhaustion and I are close friends.” Kakashi told him, “I know all the short cuts to rebuild your chakra base. It is a delicate balance. Pushing your body to build chakra and pushing it too hard and losing what little chakra you’ve built up.”

Kakashi positioned his hands in the general chakra gathering seal. 

“It is well known to build chakra you should meditate and gain new experiences to build the spiritual part of chakra and physical activity builds the body part of chakra. However, there is the little known fact that the instant before you release a jutsu, your chakra builds upon itself.” Kakashi gathered his chakra to the precipice just at the precise moment before molding it for a jutsu and held it there. 

Holding chakra in that moment when it should be either released or used is not a comfortable feeling by any means, but it was not worse than any other strenuous exercise. After his ‘grip’ on the charka started to get slippery Kakashi carefully reabsorbed the chakra back into himself instead of releasing it. Which was an even less pleasant feeling. Turning chakra back into stamina was not the way it wanted to work. 

“You must have enough control to reabsorb your chakra, if you can’t and release the chakra it defeats the purpose. The more chakra you hold at the edge the more chakra you build.”

Sasuke’s brow furrowed. “I’ve never thought about reabsorbing my chakra before. I didn’t realize it was possible.” 

“Generally it doesn’t matter unless you lack chakra control and have tiny reserves. Then it doesn’t help much because you need to have good control to be able to reabsorb your chakra.”

Sasuke closed his eyes and concentrated. Kakashi was sure that if he watched him with his Sharingan he’d see that he was slowly testing his ability to reabsorb chakra- careful that he would not lose the little he had gained. About two minutes later Kakashi felt the prickling sensation of a chakra being molded then the feeling faded. Kakashi wasn’t a sensor by any means- he tracked by smell- but when he practiced this technique he became more sensitive than normal for a while. The same as he would amidst a battle.

Though, even if he hadn’t felt it, the smug smirk on Sasuke’s face would have told him his charge had succeeded. Kakashi closed his eyes and concentrated on his own chakra. 

For once, since the mission began, time passed quickly. Over two hours later they were both sweaty and achy. Neither of them had moved an inch since they started. It had been too long since Kakashi had practiced the technique when his chakra levels were full. He had to do it a lot when he first got the Sharingan to expand his capacity so the eye wouldn’t kill him. It was probably the only reason the med-nin taught it to him in the first place. You could build chakra quicker by using this technique while meditating. It was tough, but could double the amount of chakra gain than mediating alone. It was also possible to more than double what you normally gain if you practiced it during physical activity. 

Sasuke flopped on his back and flung an arm over his eyes. Kakashi slumped where he was sitting.

“There is still so much I don’t know.” Sasuke mused quietly from where he lay. Kakashi didn’t know for sure, but he thought there might have been concern in his voice. “I need to-” He cut himself off suddenly and clenched his fist not allowing himself to continue on with the thought he had just spoken. 

Kakashi couldn’t see much of Sasuke’s face because of his arm. It wasn’t easy trying to figure out what was going on inside the 17 year-old’s head, but with all the hours of togetherness time-even as silent as it usually was- he was learning to read him a little. Today was certainly a day of firsts. That statement was very likely the first time his charge almost requested help. 

+++

Later that night, when Kakashi lay in bed, he was amused to note that the best result from the chakra gathering exercise was that it meant his report to the Hokage wasn’t the general boring details of what he and Sasuke had for lunch and how many dust motes he counted that day. Sure he had to explain why, exactly, he taught his charge a technique that would help him get to full strength quicker, but after a minute of thinking about it Sarutobi approved of his actions. While Kakashi wasn’t completely sure that he agreed with the man, it was gratifying to hear the Hokage say he trusted his judgment and for him to do what he needed to do. 

Now that he was in bed surrounded by his pack of dogs he considered what he would do with his charge and the Hokage’s trust in his judgment. There was likely a very specific thing the teen was interested in, but he doubted it would be easy to pry it out of him. 

“You are thinking too hard.” A muffled voice said from his feet. “You are making it difficult to sleep.”

Kakashi nudged the gold and white herding dog with one foot. “You could go home.”

He didn’t mean it. He didn’t mind his summons taking over his home. The dogs knew it as well. If he had minded he could have never made a contract with them. As far as Kakashi could tell summons dogs were unique in their desire to stay as close to their summoner as possible. The preference to be with and work with humans was in a dog’s genetic makeup after all.

“Why are you thinking so hard about this?”Uhei asked from his right side. The red and white sight hound had curled her tall, long limbed body into a tiny ball against his side. “Decide what you are going to do when it comes up. No use worrying over it like a bone.”

Why was he worrying about it? He generally did what he wanted anyway. Taking a second to reevaluate it all, he realized what was really bothering him. If what Sasuke said was true, then he was given a Genin team with Sensei’s son on it. The child he was currently forbidden to have any contact with what-so-ever because the boy had the Kyuubi sealed inside and Kakashi had the Sharingan. 

How ironic. 

“Apparently in the future that never was, I was given a Genin team that consisted of my current charge, Minato’s son and a poor girl who got stuck on the team with us.” 

Pakkun snorted from his comfortable bed of Bull’s broad back. “Sounds like trouble. Your charge’s real self is 8 years old right? That means you have about 4 years to figure out how to get out of it. See, having a charge who once lived the future is a benefit.” 

“That you took them on must mean that they were special.” Akino said from his feet. “You wouldn’t keep them just because you were told to.” 

“They are not special yet, though. They are just 8 year old brats.” Pakkun replied. 

Kakashi had to wonder what kind of 8 year old turns into the 17 year old he was ordered to guard. He didn’t know for sure, but he sensed that while his charge was trying to appear calm and in control he was in all actuality very tightly wound and if picked at just right the teen would come messily undone. 

…Maybe something to consider at another time.

“We will scout them for you.” Pakkun said suddenly. Kakashi turned his head to look at the little pug. He could barely make out the pale outline in the dark with his natural eye. 

“We have nothing else to do while you are busy with your charge all day.” The pug said defensively at Kakashi’s look. So much for curiosity being a cat’s trait.

“You could go home…” Kakashi offered for the second time. 

“We are home.” Uhei said calmly and uncurled from her ball and flopped across his stomach. Oof. Uhei was not as light as she looked. 

“Do what you want.” Kakashi told his dogs, “Just don’t get into trouble.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not really happy with this chapter, but I can't really figure out how to fix it. I tried re-writing it but it came out even worse so I stuck with this originally written one.   
> Next chapter will be much longer than my usual. We will get brief Sasuke thoughts, more ninja dogs and a glimpse of pre-team seven.


	5. Little Team 7 makes an appearance with canine stalkers

Dogs are generally lazy creatures. Sure they have their hyperactive moments but if given the opportunity they would spend all day lounging on the furniture with the height of energy expenditure being chewing the stuffing out of a favorite pillow or gnawing on a rawhide bone. In Kakashi’s pack typically twelve hours of down time a day was preferred with the two hounds in the group easily topping sixteen hours a day if given the opportunity. None of the dogs need that much rest by any means, they were just fans of dozing and not getting up before noon if it wasn’t needed. Then finding the sun patch and dozing some more.

 

Conservation of energy and all that.

 

This early morning, however, they were on a mission. There wasn’t a sign of laziness in any of the dogs as they put their heads together to plot out a plan of attack on their self assigned mission.

 

“We know the plan, but only three of us are needed.” Akino said. “This is a simple medium risk scouting mission.” The gold and white herding dog was the most strategic minded of the group, while this basic mission didn’t really need his brain power, it was habit for him take the lead on plotting out the approach they were going to take.

 

“Bisuke and Pakkun, obviously,” Guruko, the tri-colored hound said to him, “but who will be the third?”

 

Bisuke and Pakkun were the smallest of Kakashi’s pack. Kakashi often used Bisuke on recon missions in towns as the scruffy tan terrier was always overlooked by people unless he purposely brought attention to himself. Apparently his appearance was what everyone always assumed a generic stray mutt looked like. If a second scout was needed Pakkun often was chosen because he was the smallest of the dogs and not as noticeable. If he was noticed he could fake being cute as a distraction. The rest of Kakashi’s pack stood out too much to be truly effective.  Bull was a giant beast who intimidated even other shinobi, Uhei was Kakashi’s second largest dog, Guruko’s flashy tri-colored coat drew attention, Akino wore sunglasses during the day due to his eye condition and the two spitz type dogs -the gray Shiba and the larger yellow Urushi -didn’t have the temperament needed. Shiba was too excitable with a short attention span and Urushi was grumpy and hated everyone who wasn’t Kakashi on sight.

 

“Uhei.” Pakkun said. Through the process of elimination the only female of Kakashi’s pack was the best choice. “Uhei will be the third.”

 

Bull woofed lowly.

 

“We will watch our tails,” Bisuke reassured him, “We won’t get Kakashi in trouble by being spotted by the boys’ ANBU shadows. It is why we are calling it medium risk instead of a cake-walk.”

 

“Alright. Any other concerns?” Pakkun asked and looked around. There were none. “Then we are out.”

 

 

***

 

 An hour later found Pakkun, Bisuke and Uhei staking out the Ninja Academy. The reason for starting at the Academy was simple- they had no idea what Kakashi’s potential future genin looked like or smelt like. By watching the Academy they could pinpoint their targets.

 

The first group of Academy students to arrive was a group of boys shoving each other and laughing loudly.

 

“I’m taking the girl.” Pakkun said decidedly as one of the boys jumped on the back of another and started a wrestling match. “I’d rather deal with a girl. Boys are bound to be nothing but trouble.”

 

“I’ll take Kakashi’s sensei’s son.”  Bisuke offered.

 

“Then I have the other Sasuke.” Uhei said absently as she watched the curious actions of ninja in training gathering for school. Many kids went straight into the building; others were hanging around the outside waiting for friends to show up before entering. The youngest students had a parent or sibling walking them to school.

 

The dogs were cautious as they silently observed the ebb and flow of ninja. There was no concern any of the children would discover them, but any of the instructors, parents or siblings may become suspicious if they decided to take a long hard look at the three seemingly stray dogs. It wasn’t too likely- they were Kakashi’s dogs after all and Kakashi would not have untalented ninja dogs- but always a possibility. They stayed on their guard and made sure they were lounging like any common stray mutt would.

 

Uhei suddenly lifted her head and scented the air. “That one is mine.” She said.

 

Pakkun looked away from a blond girl waiting at the gate. A black haired boy was coming up the path clutching his school bag, eyes distant, as he slowly made his way to school. The more telling sign was the ANBU trailing him from the shadows. As soon as the boy entered the building the ANBU disappeared.

 

“He smells a little like Kakashi’s charge.” Bisuke said thoughtfully at the closed door. “Different but similar.”

 

Kakashi’s spent so much time in his charge’s presence that they could smell the teen on him when he came home. Pakkun sniffed the air currents. He agreed, that was Uhei’s kid.

 

Immediately after the boy disappeared into the building the blond girl waiting by the gate started waving and called out. “Sakura! Sakura!”

 

A girl clutching books in her arms trotted up to the blond. They began chatting with the blond swinging her arms around broadly to emphasis a point. 

 

“She is probably mine.” Pakkun said, watching them vanish behind the door as well. The dogs didn’t know a lot about the girl who was supposed to be on Kakashi’s team, just that her name was Sakura. This girl looked to be the right age. There couldn’t be too many girls that age with the same name. Right?

 

Long after the last student hurried through the door, a blond haired blue-eyed boy came running up to the school. He slammed the door open with a bang.

 

“And there is yours.” Pakkun said to Bisuke after the trailing ANBU disappeared. “You two will have to be careful of the ANBU. The last Uchiha, the Kyuubi? I doubt they put their newbies on them. Some of them have worked with us when Kakashi was ANBU. They could see right through us.”

 

“We will be cautious.” Uhei assured him.

 

“I am sure we know them better than they know us.” Bisuke added. Kakashi was usually very discrete about using them when he was on ANBU missions. It was clear to all the dogs that Kakashi did what he could to keep from getting them mixed up in some of the dirty work he did when he was ANBU. It was kind of silly as that kind of stuff didn’t matter to them, they were dogs after all, but for some reason it mattered to Kakashi.  

 

“The ANBU have time off while the boys are in school. You shouldn’t have to worry too much about them until class lets out.”

 

 “By then we will have scouted out places to observe them.” Uhei said then tilted her head and looked back toward the building. “Roll Call.”

 

“Pefect.” Pakkun said. “Now I get to see how many Sakuras there are to chase after.”

 

 The three dogs repositioned themselves to better hear what was going on inside the classroom. If two of their targets were in the class then it was almost certain the third would be in the same class.

 

To Pakkun’s relief, there was only one Sakura in the room. The dogs eased back to their original location.

 

“Baby Ninja Stalking Phase One Complete.” Pakkun said looking up at his companions. “Baby Ninja Stalking Phase Two commences.”

 

 Without another word the three dogs slipped away to complete their mission.

 

***

 

Pakkun started at the gate where the blond and his target met. The blonde’s soft girl smell had an overlay of flowers his target’s soft girl scent had an overlay of the crisp clean bathing soap she used. He could faintly pick up the unique scent that would always be there regardless of what shampoo she used to wash it away or other smelly things she put on herself to hide it. The girl’s path to the Academy was easy to follow and it led to a nice little comfortable looking home. The house was located in a mostly civilian section of town.

 

After a slow ambling walk around the perimeter of the house he concluded there was no one home. Lucky. Now he knew for certain he picked the best of the three kids.

 

It took no time at all for him to find his way into the empty house. Not only was the house located within the civilian section of town, the whole set up of the place was completely civilian.

 

 _Or_ , he amended the thought, _as completely civilian as one can get living in a shinobi village_.

 

He determined after looking closely at the parents’ possessions that Mom was once a Chunin who retired long ago- most likely after she became pregnant, if a female ninja retires, that is usually when it happens. The father however was a pure civilian. Where the mom kept some old and mostly forgotten ninja habits in the lay of her possession there was nothing in the dad’s possessions or the positioning of them to indicate anything other than peaceful civilian.

 

 The girl’s room was a mix of ninja and girly things. He decided that she really was cute. The thought of Kakashi having to try to lead a girl like this made him snicker. His boss was a great and very talented shinobi, but he had never been one who could relate well with anyone who wasn’t pure ninja. Even then he sometimes had trouble.

 

After a thorough sweep of the house- and being careful he did nothing that may ping the old chunnin’s ninja senses- he followed the girl’s trail to other places she liked to hang out at. One well travelled trail went to a flower shop and what smelt like the home of the blond girl. The blond girl was a Yamanaka. Pakkun made sure to keep his distance from their home and business.  The other well travelled trail led to a park. The scent of the two girls covered the park and old scents were layered under more recent scents. All indications pointed to the two girls coming to this park after the Academy let out.

 

What a perfect place to observe. With a yawn and a stretch, Pakkun found himself a comfy place under a bush to plop down and wait for his target to show. And you know what? Getting in a nap in wouldn’t hurt.

 

***

 

Uhei found her boy’s apartment as quickly as Pakkun found the girl’s. The apartment was locked up tight, but locks and simple traps would never be much trouble for any of Kakashi’s dogs. Once she entered the place she became cautious. She knew that the boy hadn’t lived there for long- possibly as few as a couple months- but still… this place didn’t look lived in at all.

 

Unaccountable nervous, she walked softly as possible. The room had a strong smell of cleaning solution. The entire place was spotless without a thing out of place. She was a dog. She didn’t know a lot about the psychology of humans but she was sure this said something about the boy’s psyche. She’d have to ask Kakashi what it meant. The apartment was too clean and too empty to tell her much else. The boy even washed his bedding and precisely remade the bed before going to school.

 

She wasn’t going to learn anything here.

 

The boy, she found once she trailed his scent after leaving the apartment, only went three places when he wasn’t home: the academy, the market, and the empty Uchiha Complex. When Uhei followed his scent to the abandoned section of the village she was a little surprised. It was strange that the people in charge allowed him to come to this place. Here, the boy’s scent was everywhere along with the scent of old death. Though the boy often wandered around the houses, he mostly went to a particular training ground. Here she could smell the missing emotions from the apartment. Fear.  Anger. Sadness. The sadness nearly overwhelmed the other two.

 

Thinking back to the clean apartment and freshly laundered bed she wondered if he was trying to wash away the tears of sadness or the sweat of fear that came from dreams.

 

There was no doubt in her mind that her boy would come here. She settled in to wait.

 

 

***

 

Bisuke was the kind of dog that no one ever gave a second glance at. He looked like a small to medium sized stray mutt. It was rare that anyone noticed him at all if he didn’t have his ninja gear on and the word shinobi wasn’t visible on his forehead. It meant he was great on recon missions. It turned out to be particularly good for this current self assigned mission as well.

 

While Bisuke easily followed the blond kid’s trail home he quickly realized that observing the blond boy was going to be more of a challenge than he originally thought. As he followed the recent path to the school he noticed that the kid’s scent was _everywhere_. It put him at a little bit of a dilemma. Trying to find a location to observe the kid was not going to be easy and he wasn’t going to try to push his luck by trailing after him. It was vital that he find the location to observe the boy _before_ the boy got there to keep from alerting the ANBU assigned to the boy.

 

Bisuke snorted. _First step first_. He reminded himself. He needed to take a look at the kid’s den.

 

Breaking into the kid’s house was simple. The boy left a window open and it was nothing to slip right in- even if the apartment was on the third floor. The boy probably should learn how to shut his windows. While it wouldn’t have stopped him or anyone else for that matter, leaving the window open only invited bugs and other creatures to come in and take over you place. While crawly creatures were fun for dogs to chase, he had learned that humans were generally not a fan of them in their homes.

 

Bisuke delicately walked away from the window and the hair on his back rose as he observed the one room apartment. Ninja, he decided with distaste, kicked their young out of the whelping bed too early. The place was a complete disaster. Scrolls, books, empty food containers and other trash littered the room. The only thing not on the floor was clothes. Bisuke found the reason for the lack of clothes was the laundry chute in the bathroom. The only thing the kid ate was cereal and just-add-water meals. There were very little toys in the room. Even ninja boys usually had some toys. The scrolls, books and notes scattered across the room appeared to be more of what someone who didn’t know much about the shinobi arts trying to self-learn than what one would see from an academy student.

 

Bisuke was in the apartment less than two minutes and saw all he needed to see. He slipped back out of the apartment as easily as he entered. He needed to find a place to observe the boy in person. With a huff he picked a trail at random and began following it. The boy’s scent crisscrossed just about every street in the area and his territory was slowly expanding outward. Bisuke imagined the only time the boy went to his home to add to his mess was after dark.

 

It took well over two hours to track down a place where the boy visited often enough that he might catch him. If it was Guruko, he probably could have found the place in fifteen minutes, but while Guruko was the best tracker in the pack, he was also a flashy looking large brown, white and tan hound. Much more noticeable than Bisuke’s small shaggy appearance.

 

Bisuke decided that it was the perfect location to observe the boy. Lifting his nose in the air Bisuke took in the yummy scents of the ramen stand. If he was careful enough, this might be a _great_ place to hang out for the day.

 

***

 

The hours passed like they always do to for dogs. Not really noticeable at all. When the small dark haired boy came to the training field Uhei didn’t move. She kept her eyes closed and head resting on her crossed front legs. He moved like a half trained ninja. A whisper of sound when a fully trained shinobi would have no sound. The slight inhalation of breath at the unexpected sight of a large dog sleeping underneath a small shade tree when an experienced shinobi would make no indication of surprise.

 

It was only when he clanked his bag that she lifted her head to look at him. He was staring at her, confused by this unexpected break from routine. She gave a brief wag of her tail for him.

 

“…hello.” He said softly, uncertain.

 

She rewarded him with a more enthusiastic wag of her tail. His expression lightened a little. Not a full smile, but no longer a frown. Uhei, unlike the grouchy Urushi she often partnered with, liked children. Liked them to be happy even. When she saw the state of her boy’s home and the emotions lingering around this place she had no intention of simply observing him. She didn’t have to worry about his ANBU shadow. None of the ANBU guards ventured past the gates of the old Uchiha complex.

 

Uhei made a show of stretching and yawning then flopped over onto her side and closed her eyes again.

There was an amused snort from the boy then she heard him move away. The rustling and the sound of faint clinking metal caused her to twitch an ear. Throwing stars. Opening an eye she watched as the boy clutched a star in each hand. His body language was tense as he stared at the tree that had many old scars littering its trunk. He threw first the star in his right hand then the one in his left in quick succession. The second star hit a hands breadth near the center of the trunk the first far off the center. His posture became even tenser, if that was possible, and he reached into his pouch and threw two more. They were worse throws than the first two.

 

The next two minutes had the boy quickly emptying his pouch. The thunk, thunk, thunk of the stars hitting the target tree had Uhei rolling off her side so she was lying on her belly again, head resting on her paws to better watch. It was clear, even through the boy’s deteriorating aim, that his left hand was better than his right.  As he stood panting glaring at the tree Uhei jumped to her feet. Her movement caught the boy’s attention. He turned his head to look at her and his eyes widened a bit at just how large she actually was. Even with her long lanky body she outweighed him by at least twenty pounds. Uhei ignored the boy and trotted to the tree. She gently picked up a star that had fallen to the ground after it bounced off another star.

 

“Hey…wait you are going to hurt yourself.”

 

The concern in his voice was good, she thought, better than the anger or being devoid of emotion. She trotted to where he was walking toward her and dropped the star at his feet.

 

He stopped, looked down at it, then at her. She tilted her head at him and wagged her tail slowly.

 

“What?”

 

Uhei huffed at him, hadn’t he ever been around dogs before? She turned and went back to the tree, this time carefully pulling one of the stars out of the tree bark. This time when she dropped the star at his feet he reached down and picked it up.

 

“You want to play fetch?” He asked confused. Uhei wagged her tail and gave a soft woof. He looked down at the star in his hand. “You can’t play with weapons.”

 

She turned to go back to the tree for another star; maybe the third time would be the charm.

 

 “Wait!”

 

She looked at him.

 

 “How about kunai?” he said and dug through his weapons pouch “It doesn’t have sharp edges all the way around. If you are determined to play fetch…”

 

Uhei wagged her tail happily. She could work with this.

 

***

 

Pakkun did not know how he could have ever thought girls were better than boys. 

 

It all started out okay. He watched as his target and her friend played with others at the park. She was a little shy, but acted normal like all the other girls. Then the Yamanaka girl started to create a flower crown and his target helped her by picking flowers, which led to the girl spotting him under the flowering bush.

 

“Oh! There is a little dog under there.”  Pakkun flattened his ears and tucked his tail. Crap. He didn’t mean to be spotted. Of course kids would spot the hiding dog. They were startlingly observant when it came to puppy-dogs.

 

“Let me see.”

 

“I want to see.”

 

“Why is there a dog under there?”

 

The girl peaking through the branches at him was shoved away and another larger girl looked under the bushes at him. This girl was the one who had been bossing everyone around since she arrived at park. The girl was, Pakkun acknowledged as she crawled part way under the bush to blindly grab at him, not very bright. He sighed resignedly and allowed her to drag him out from under the bush by one front leg. If he were a normal dog he would not have been able to resist chomping her hand for trying such an act. Or maybe her face with it being right there in easy biting distance. He’d think a ninja to be- he recognized the girl from the Academy- would be smart enough not to put her face on level with a strange trapped dog. Didn’t they teach kids self-perseveration anymore?

 

“That is such an ugly dog. His face is all squished in and his eyes are a little buggy too.” The blond friend to his target said loudly. In response Pakkun shook himself so the dirt, leaves and bits of branches that gathered on his fur from his long nap under the bush went flying at the surrounding girls. “…so dirty too.”  

 

The other girls backed away, but his target timidly offered her hand to him so she could pet him. He let her.

 

“Ew, Sakura, don’t pet a nasty stray.” The irritating blond complained to her friend.

 

“He looks too healthy and clean to not have a home.” She rubbed her and down his side. “He’s soft.”

 

To reward her Pakkun offered her his paw. She smiled and shook it. “I wonder if we should find his owner?”

 

Pakkun tried to figure out how to get across that it was a nice thought, but a bad idea.

 

“He doesn’t look scared and trying to find his owner would take forever. You can play with him if you have to, but leave him here. If he is still here tomorrow then we will try to find his owner then.” Pakkun looked up at the blond, impressed; it was the first thing the blond said all day that Pakkun approved of.

 

In the end, all the girls at the park seemed normal enough. His target, though a dog spotting nuisance, knew how to treat a dog and was the best of the lot.

 

***

 

The ramen shop became Bisuke’s new favorite place to be that wasn’t Kakashi’s home. He was mostly ignored by all except for the girl working the counter. She would sneak him leftovers whenever a customer didn’t finish their meal. It wasn’t too often, but enough to make Bisuke’s day. He made a great decision when he chose Kakashi’s sensei’s son. He originally picked the boy because he remembered how his mother used help him dig up her flower garden and never tired of playing fetch with him. Not many humans- a ninja no less!- were that awesome. If her son was anywhere near as fun then Bisuke wouldn’t mind Kakashi taking him on as a student.

 

His pack mates had met their targets long before Bisuke’s boy made an appearance. Though the blond boy was droopy when he came into sight, he perked up and had an excited hop in his step when he got closer to the Ramen stand. He ordered a pork ramen with this one free meal coupon. Bisuke only half listened to him as he jabbered away to the ramen girl and slurped down his food. The boy’s ANBU shadow was tucked away out of sight but didn’t seem to be paying a whole lot of attention to the scruffy tan dog.

 

“He does not need any more food.” The owner of the ramen stand said to the ramen girl. Bisuke looked up with the saddest look he could muster. “You have been feeding him all day behind my back. If he eats anymore he will pop.”

 

His target looked at him then looked down at his own empty bowl, “A little bit more can’t hurt, right?”

 

“Mmm…” The owner said indecisively and stared down at Bisuke. He turned up the cute factor a notch.

 

The ramen girl slipped something that smelt like a meaty bone into his target’s hand during the ramen guy’s distraction. Score.

 

Another customer snorted from where he was sitting, “He needs to be chased off. Not fed. Strays are such a nuisance. Once you start feeding them they will never go away.”

 

Bisuke  was pretty sure the man wasn’t completely talking about him with the way his eyes were settled on the boy.

 

“I’ll take him!” The boy said and Bisuke suddenly found himself scooped up in a pair of short arms.

 

“You can’t just take a stray like that Naruto. Your apartment doesn’t allow pets for one, and another you don’t know what kind of diseases it may have.”

 

The arms around him tightened. “See you later!”

 

Bisuke stayed very, very still. He wasn’t a large dog, but he was too big to be carried around by an eight year old.

 

“It is okay. I won’t let anyone chase you away. I can’t keep you, but you can stay with me for now.”

 

 Bisuke slowly squirmed until he could hang his front paws over the boy’s shoulder to make it easier to be carried. He liked the smell of the kid. It was playing outside all day in the sun and causing trouble type of smell. Bisuke leaned over and licked his ear. The boy giggled.

 

Once they made it to the boy’s apartment complex he was carefully set down on the steps and the boy sat beside him giving him the bone ramen girl snuck him and scratched his ears. “You will be okay out here for now. The landlady is gruff, but she won’t chase you off.”

 

Bisuke gnawed on the bone as the boy continued to pet and scratch him and jabbered away at whatever entered his head. After a while Bisuke eased himself closer and rested his head on the boy’s leg listening to him prattle on about his week. He would have to go home soon, but for now he didn’t mind keeping a lonely boy company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really sorry this chapter is late and kind of rough. When I began posting Future’s Broken Past I set up a monthly posting schedule because I knew I was a slow writer. I also planned on being at least two chapters ahead. Unfortunately life and this chapter happened at the same time. On top of recently not having enough time to think about writing- much less actually being able to write- this chapter turned out to be much, much longer than my usual. It originally had Kakashi & Sasuke splitting up the dog scenes, but it was really jagged and not flowing at all along with missing scenes. I extracted the bits centering on the dogs, roughly shoved them together and here is the chapter. I think the next chapter will be on time (and hopefully better polished) we will have to see aboutthe following chapters.


	6. Wherein Sasuke obsesses and Shikaku cottons on that something is going on

The silence of the pre-dawn hours was only broken by the faint hum of the mostly empty refrigerator in the back of the apartment. The steady quiet hum coming from the back room was only noticeable since the morning was so incredibly still. The nocturnal creatures were already settled for the coming day and the morning creatures had not yet awakened. Not even a breeze blew to softly rattle the wooden wind chimes hanging outside the open window. There was nothing to distract the ninja sitting against the wall of the dark room from the adrenaline coursing through his body and the thoughts circling in his mind. 

Sasuke was beginning to feel trapped. 

No, trapped wasn’t exactly accurate. Sasuke was starting to feel like a puppet with its strings broken and burn day scheduled and creeping inevitable closer with each day of inactivity. His body was mostly well but he had only minute chakra reserves available to him. His chakra was coming back to him so slowly it seemed unnatural. The worst part was he didn’t know what happened to him to cause his chakra to be in such rough shape. His memory of what happened after joining Naruto in the fight against the Juubi wasn’t much better than it was when he woke in the hospital- a shattered picture made of glass he was slowly and incompetently trying to find the pieces to and put back together. 

He was tired of being still; trying to recuperate and figure out what was in those seconds/minutes/hours/ days (?) before he suddenly found himself in the past. Before time reversed on him he went to fight the Juubi with one objective on his mind and now to keep himself grounded he was clinging to it desperately. His tendency toward obsession may not be healthy, but it worked for him. It would keep working for him as he figured out how to complete his objective. The one objective was still vital regardless of his state of mind.

Stop Madara. 

It was pretty simple sounding. There was the time-loop to deal with, of course, but Sasuke was pretty sure stopping Madara would stop the time-loop. The two had to be tied together- if the battle against the Juubi and what followed (whatever _that_ was) had not happened then neither would have the time-loop. Once Sasuke had dealt with that familial obligation he was sure what he needed to do about the flawed village system would become clear to him. As long as he kept moving forward everything would fall into place. 

Even now, as he sat in the dark unable to sleep with dawn yet hours away, his heart thrummed with the desperate need he had felt when he first woke in the hospital. There were _years_ between when he stood on the battlefield and this time he now found himself in, but somehow it didn’t feel like those years mattered. Other than the strangely young Kakashi becoming an ever present shadow, the whole time issue almost didn’t seem real. He still felt the urgency clawing at his nerves telling him to stop the events as if they were still only moments away instead of almost a decade. Instead of sleeping he found himself sitting against the wall as his mind kept going through plans and discarding them. 

How _did_ someone stop a man already dead? 

Sasuke took a deep breath and rested his forehead on his arms crossed over his knees. What he really needed was to learn patience. Learn to study all the angles and put all the pieces together before he acted. Fighting and training to fight was what Sasuke knew best. He was not a patient person. He plotted and planned and strategized but was not patient. His instincts said to move, to do something other than sit and let things get too far out of his control. There was so much he didn’t know, never learned completely, because he never needed it before. There was so much that he knew that no longer made sense in this world. He itched to take a look at this Leaf Village he found himself in. The one that was so much more like the one he once knew, but so different from the one he last saw in his own time. 

Maybe if he saw the village as it was he would have a better perspective on _when_ he was and lessen the evitable feeling of encroaching disaster. Maybe. 

Madara was dead, but his plans continued on for decades after his death. He worked through other agents such as the man who had introduced himself as Madara. He was also brought back into existence by Kabuto and, as he didn’t go back to the afterlife after Itachi forced Kabuto to release the jutsu, he apparently snatched the reins of the jutsu from Kabuto as the Second Hokage had threatened to do to Orochimaru. Was it planned that Kabuto would bring him back by Edo-Tensei? Sasuke couldn’t completely rule it out but it didn’t seem possible. Kabuto was Orochimaru’s man through and through. 

Sasuke paused at the thought and groaned, banging his head back against the wall. Nobody here in this time knew Kabuto belonged to Orochimaru. 

Sasuke was still sitting in the same place a few hours later when Kakashi arrived for the beginning of the day. It was still mostly dark out, but the birds had begun their morning chorus. He didn’t bother looking up when Kakashi tossed him the scroll of new questions from the Hokage. He caught it with his nearest hand and left his eyes closed. He could guess the questions listed on the scroll. They would be similar to other questions that were on previous scrolls. Opening his eyes Sasuke ran a finger across the edge causing the scroll to come open. Sure enough, the scroll contained what he was expecting. In the dark he could make out the first question was about Land of Lightning’s current economy. 

This all felt so futile. 

Sasuke could answer what Lightning’s economy was like when he was fifteen, but not when he was eight. At eight he had other, more immediate and closer to home things on his mind than what was happening in other countries. He didn’t start caring about what was going on outside his immediate surrounds until he had been with Orochimaru for about a year and only then because it would help him find Itachi. Sasuke’s knowledge mostly centered around the Akatsuki and things that had interested Orochimaru. 

Of course, Sasuke knew historical facts, but he didn’t actually know when the exact years or dates of things began happening. It was probable that talks of reducing Wind’s Military would be beginning soon though it probably wouldn’t start to take affect for a couple of years yet. The reducing of the military would lead Orochmaru into convincing Sand Village to attack the Leaf… 

Sasuke looked up from the scroll to Kakashi. The gray haired man was standing by the window where the little light entering the room was the brightest reading a book about poker tactics. During his babysitting duties Kakashi had brought over a large variety of books to fly through and only a few were the raunchy books Sasuke associated with the man. Sasuke let the scroll roll back up and seal. So far he had answered everything the Hokage asked that he knew the answer to, but he had yet to volunteer any information that wasn’t directly asked other than details pertaining to Akatsuki and Juubi. 

“Done?” Kakashi asked through he had to know he wasn’t. It was too dark where Sasuke was sitting to read the questions well, much less the fact that Sasuke hadn’t written anything. 

“I want to think about the answers.” Everything was so interconnected to everything else. Who knows what a small change in one place will cause elsewhere. 

_Patience_ Sasuke reminded himself. He had to refrain from trying to move and act immediately. He needed more time to think and plan moves before sweeping changes to what he knew began to happen. 

_Things are already changing_ insisted his thoughts. 

He brushed the thought aside. He needed to gain his strength back so he could make moves. His chakra was slow at coming back to him. The chakra building technique had helped a lot- he could probably do newly made Genin level Justus now- but it was a pretty unpleasant way to go about it. Not to mention it made his chakra feel…odd. At the moment he would rather work on gaining chakra the slower, less exciting way. Exercise. Maybe it would help soothe the sharp edge his nerves were dancing on. His body no longer ached and he had been cooped up inside for far too long. His physical strength was mostly returned. 

“Am I cleared to leave this apartment?” 

“You can go anywhere within the village as long as I am with you.” 

He needed to stretch his muscles and work out the kinks from being mostly inactive. Kakashi was still watching him, waiting for a reply. 

“Let’s go to training field five.” He said after mentally running through the Leaf training fields he knew about. Maybe he could convince Kakashi to spar with him a little when they got there. 

*** 

The walk through the village to the clearing was uneventful. Sasuke was dressed in a sleeveless dark grey top and black generic pants. To the civilians who were already up and about he looked like any other ninja walking next to Kakashi. Any experienced shinobi who passed by them and noticed he didn’t have any markings identifying his village also observed he was being escorted by a Leaf shinobi and let it go. 

The village was exactly as he imagined it would be. All scars from Orochimaru’s attack and Pains complete destruction were gone. The village was again the place of his childhood. 

It made his skin crawl. 

Sasuke removed the cloth covering his features as soon as he and Kakashi entered the trees. He didn’t know how Kakashi could stand having fabric pressing against his face all the time. The clingy fabric was more than a little irritating. 

The brand new morning sunlight was not yet high enough to come over the top of the trees into the clearing and had to fight its way through the tree branches and leaves to bring the area a soft light. Training field five, like many of Leaf’s training fields, was in a tree filled area. There was a slight clearing, but large trees covered most of the grounds. It was here that Sasuke had once exhausted himself practicing Chidori after he saw a taste of the power Naruto had hidden inside of him. At the time he had strongly felt that he was falling behind- that he was getting weaker instead of stronger. Back then he chose training field five to vent his rage and insecurities for the same reasons as he chose to visit it now. Field five was an older out of the way place that wasn’t used much because it did not have any benefits that newer, better, areas didn’t have. It was simply a narrow clearing amongst large trees. 

Sasuke ignored Kakashi leaning against one of those trees watching him as he took in the differences in the clearing from the last time he saw it. Reaching down he picked up handful of leaves from the ground then opened his hand to let them flutter to the earth. 

This place had never seen him before. 

The skin crawling feeling he had when walking through the village intensified. This time he could identify it for exactly what it was. He did not belong here. It wasn’t simply being in a village he left once so long ago, it was being in a time where he should not be. Having memories and a past that did not exist. This wasn’t a gift of starting again. It was a burden of knowing what no one else did which was only real in his own mind. 

“Can you spar with me?” Sasuke asked suddenly, still looking at the fallen leaves. He needed to release the thrumming false energy tension and anxiety had built in him. He needed to not think for a while. 

“Sure.” 

Neither of them had to say that it would be a taijustu only spar as it was obvious Sasuke’s chakra wasn’t up to par for anything more. They started in the center of the clearing and Sasuke went on offensive first. He had no need to slowly feel out Kakashi’s fighting style. He was familiar with his former sensei’s way of fighting. Kakashi took the sudden flurry of attacks in stride; blocking and avoiding each hit and kick with ease. Sasuke picked up the speed of his attack pressing Kakashi keeping him on the defensive. Kakashi had always been fast- he was one of a handful of people who had the purely physical non-chakra enhanced speed that could keep up with Sasuke’s own. 

Sasuke grunted when Kakashi caught his arm. Sasuke went closer to shove a palm in the other man’s face. Kakashi ducked the open handed punch and rolled Sasuke over his shoulder. Sasuke went with the throw as it forced Kakashi to release the grip he had on his arm. The moment he landed Sasuke swept a leg out for Kakashi’s knees. Kakashi leaped back and that was all Sasuke was really going for. To put a little space between them so he could gather himself again. 

This time Kakashi went on attack. Sasuke avoided most of the hits instead of blocking them. Then to throw his opponent off balance he blocked a punch to the side. With a quick jab of his elbow into Kakashi’s solar flex and a wince when Kakashi’s palm connected with his shoulder Sasuke realized that this was actually enjoyable. He hadn’t sparred with someone without an immediate serious threat of loss of life or limb since he was a newly made genin. Kakashi’s taijutsu was almost exactly the same as he remembered it. It was such a strange thought to know that Kakashi was now only five years older than he was, if he was able to fight Kakashi at full strength Sasuke would have the overwhelming advantage. Not that the outcome of a serious fight with Kakashi would ever be a certain thing. Kakashi’s biggest strength was his brain. You can take out a stronger opponent if you have a strategic mind. 

The one time he truly fought against Kakashi he hadn’t even considered whether he could defeat the man or not. That while being nearly blind and out of chakra Kakashi could have easily killed him never once crossed his mind. Sasuke would never consider a battle unwinnable. If his opponent had the advantage in skill and strength, then he would just have to out think him. There was no point in hesitating, only in moving forward. He had the confidence he could take anything in a fight- just some would be tougher than others. He had to live that way otherwise he’d be weak. 

During the skirmish with Kakashi Sasuke was the one who should have been at a disadvantage but, even as crazed as he was, Sasuke knew that it was Kakashi who was handicapped. No matter how much he deserved it, his old sensei hadn’t wanted him dead. 

This Kakashi, who was trading blows with him as though they were choreographed, would not have such a fatal handicap. But then, this man also didn’t know that Sasuke betrayed the Leaf and nearly killed two of his team at different times. No, even though Sasuke had the overwhelming advantage, it would never do to underestimate his once sensei’s younger self. Even only five years his senior Kakashi had much more battle experience and had knowledge in things Sasuke did not. Sasuke wondered if his former sensei’s hidden eye already held the secret of Magekyou Sharingan or if that would be something he would gain later. 

The image of a line of Sharingans implanted into an arm flashed in his minds’ eye and the flare of burning to need to find the old man and turn him into less than dust caused Sasuke’s fluid movements to stutter. The hesitation was for less than an instant, but it was enough for Kakashi to take advantage. Sasuke barely moved in time to keep his rib cage from being shattered, but a nasty ache was left to remind him not to get distracted. 

With an irritated breath Sasuke pushed the thought out of his mind and went on the attack again. The spar was supposed to allow him to clear his mind and concentrate on the simple give and take dance of the fight- not get himself accidently injured because he couldn’t control his thoughts. Ignoring the feint to the right he allowed Kakashi’s follow up move to push him back into the trees surrounding the clearing. The move to the trees would allow a new dimension to be added to their spar and it would force him to quit thinking about unnecessary things. 

*** 

“Gai delivered the missive from Eddy while you were out.” 

Shikaku fully entered the mission command room and took the sealed scroll Benni was handing him. “Missive from Eddy?” 

“Yep, made the trip in record time.” 

“…as expected of the Blue Beast.” Shikaku replied. The Blue Beast wasn’t slated for the mission to Eddy. Kakashi was picked for the mission three weeks ago while Gai was supposed to be terrifying newly made Genin as a guest instructor. Assignments made in advance like that were only a rough allotment of resources and subject to change, but the Hokage never mentioned he was going to go with a different arrangement . 

Curiosity piqued Shikaku checked the mission status for active shinobi. Kakashi was marked as off active duty… and he was still within the walls of Leaf. It could be he was placed on the inactive list since he had an endless string of missions over the past few months but Shikaku knew better. Part of strategic planning was knowing your men from Jounin to Chunin with a sprinkling of Genin on top. Kakashi was not one to request time off. The Hokage also didn’t generally deviate from plans he and Shikaku drew up together during their consulting time. Sure things came up and plans change or didn’t work out, but not just reassign which Jounin covers which mission just because. 

Shikaku topped his lips in thought. There had been some subtle inquires coming to them from other villages. So subtle that he couldn’t figure out what they inquiring about or, at first, for certain if they really were inquiries at all. However, now there had been five separate inquiries and four possible others. Maybe there was something to them. Shikaku considered it a little longer then sighed and put the thought out of his mind. No use in giving himself more work if he didn’t need to. The Hokage would let him know when he needed to know. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh. Sorry about the tacked on out of place ending scene. I had to get it into this chapter or the story would slow down considerably (and it is already moving at a crawl). There was actually a lot I wanted to get into this chapter that I just didn’t have the room for. Sasuke’s POV is very internal and rambles. I am hoping to avoid it as much as possible in the future, unfortunately we have to know what is going on in his head and he isn’t expressive enough to capture it in other POVs. 
> 
> Please, Please let me know if you see any mistakes! I would love to fix them. Especially the silly nows instead of knows.


	7. Wherein Kakashi wonders what he got himself into and Danzo makes an appearance

The weapons shop smelled faintly of metal, oil and leather. Bins running along the center of the shop held multiple sizes and styles of kunai and shuriken. Racks and shelves were filled with other sharp pointed weapons of both dull colored and bright gleaming metals. Wire was coiled in large spools in various types, thicknesses and strengths. The south wall held swords, glaives and other larger weapons unlikely to be used en masse like the kunai. Along the east wall the utensils needed to carry and handle the weapons scattered throughout the shop as well as the items needed for their upkeep could be found. This wall contained the only items for sale that hadn’t been made in the smithy behind the shop. Kakashi’s earliest memory of this shop was when his father brought him in to pick out the pouch he wanted to hold his shuriken. It was the only weapons shop in the Leaf Village that was owned by the metal smith who created the weapons. It wasn’t a one stop shop for ninja tools- Toshiko Masahide followed in the familial tradition of only selling the weapons her family made and the items needed to care for them. Scrolls, explosive tags and paper and ink for sealing techniques had to be found elsewhere.

The Masahide family had been renowned for their metal work for centuries. The story told said they didn’t even have to be asked twice if they wanted to join the newly named Village Hidden in the Leaves when it was first formed. They jumped on the chance to become part of the first ninja village created. The stability found in the village was appreciated as, apparently, having their customers killing each other on their doorstep was bad for business. Kakashi came to this shop for his weapons as did his father and sensei before him.

Toshiko Masahide was an older woman- probably close to retirement age in the line of work that used as much physical strength as metal working did. Her gray hair was tied up high on top of her head and a blue band was wrapped around her forehead to catch her sweat when working in the forge. She was wearing an old stained simple undershirt which left her broad shoulders and muscular arms bare. She raked a look over Sasuke’s masked face and ninja attire before settling her gaze on Kakashi.

“My assistant tells me you need to commission a sword? It is rare that someone needs what I don’t already have available.” She crossed her arms over her chest, “I charge three times as much for useless fancy bits when I already have a perfectly capable weapon already made.”

“I am the one who needs the sword.” Sasuke said. He shot the swords displayed along the wall a brief and, though most of his face was masked, a very blatantly dismissive look. It was as look that Toshiko noticed. She practically bristled in response.

Kakashi began to sweat. You don’t piss off the best weapon maker in the nearest three countries when your livelihood depends on good weapons. He made a mental note to remember in the future that his charge was a little lacking in the social skills area. 

Toshiko narrowed her eyes at Sasuke. “I am only listening because Kakashi brought you. Speak. Then I will determine if I will make it for you or not.”

Sasuke didn’t break eye contact as he pulled a folded paper out of a pocket and handed it over. The paper, Kakashi knew, held the dimensions of the sword he wanted. It was possibly the plainest sword Kakashi had ever seen and he had briefly owned an ANBU issued short sword. There were no adornments, not even a guard. Sasuke had sketched out the sword for him earlier that day when they were discussing his cover. The teen didn’t have a sword on him when he was found and as Sasuke was very specific about his sword so they couldn’t just pick one up as soon as he was approved to carry sharp pointy objects. They had to have one commissioned and that could take months or even a full year if the weapons smith was extremely busy. The teen better be as good with the sword as the name he chose for himself said he was.

Toshiko gave Sasuke a hard long look and unfolded the paper.  

“It needs to be able to channel chakra. Specifically lightning.” He said to her.

She grunted in acknowledgement as she studied the dimensions on the paper. “A straight blade. It is longer than they are generally made, so one like this isn’t often laying around. This is a very simple design.” The hostility faded from her voice as she spoke. “Lightning type on top of it. I see why you might need it specially made.”

The big woman looked back at Sasuke and pursed her lips in contemplation. “It isn’t often a ninja considers their chakra type when purchasing a chakra capable weapon. Any weapon can be charged with chakra, of course, but only specific weapons are made to channel chakra. When we forge weapons capable of channeling chakra the maker keys the weapon to our own chakra. I am an earth type, as are most metal smiths. I suppose as a lightning type it makes sense you would mindful of it.” She looked back down at the paper and shook her head, “I can’t emphasize lightning so a weapon will work better with it than others as Lightning is my weakness. However, all weapons I make that are able to channel chakra are excellent and will handle all types used. Though I will admit, running lightning through it may cause it to wear down a hair faster than channeling earth through it, but they will handle just the same.”

“I want better than excellent.” Sasuke said flatly.

Toshiko flattened out the sketch on the counter, “During the forging of the blade I can key it to your chakra instead of mine. When you use your chakra the blade will be like it is an extension of yourself instead of a sword. It will only work if you are available when it is time to key the blade. If you are not available. I will do it my normal way and your sword will still be excellent.”

“Acceptable. I will take two.”

“A spare or to be used at the same time?” Toshiko asked grabbing a pen to jot down notes.

“Spare.”

“Left or right hand?”

Kakashi let out a sigh of relief as Sasuke and Toshiko got down to business and discussed the fine details of the swords. At least he wouldn’t be banned from his favorite weapons shop because of a rude teenager he was babysitting whose current status as a “visiting shinobi unaffiliated with any hidden villages seeking to join the Leaf” wouldn’t even allow him to possess sharp pointy objects yet. Which truthfully was a stupid rule if Kakashi ever heard of one. Any shinobi you had to worry about could do as much damage without a weapon as with one.

According to the Hokage, Kakashi ran into Sasuke during his latest string of missions. When he came home he brought the teen with him to sponsor him to become a shinobi of the Leaf. There was currently an ALS1095 form buried under one of the Hokage’s many stacks of paperwork with Kakashi’s signature at the bottom. It would be the very first form in, what Kakashi was sure, a never ending process to get Sasuke approved become a shinobi of the Leaf.

The status as a sponsored visitor to the Leaf was a perfect cover for the Hokage’s needs. As a sponsored visitor Sasuke would be under strict supervision until he was approved for probationary status. This visitor status would explain his ANBU guard at night and the constant Kakashi shadow during the day to the curious. It wasn’t easy for a ninja to join a village they weren’t raised in and even more difficult if they were unaffiliated with any of the hidden villages to begin with. It was incredibly helpful that all of Kakashi’s missions for the last month were strictly classified as it meant that his and Sasuke’s supposed meeting was classified as well.

The Hokage left the Sasuke to decide on his own new name and Sasuke chose Sasuke Takeda.

Keeping his given name was an interesting choice. Though not overly used, it was a common enough name regardless of what country you were in. Sasuke Saratobi had been well respected by all the hidden villages. There were many men named Sasuke in the previous generation. Kakashi didn’t know if the teen was keeping his original given name simply so his reaction time to hearing his name would be normal or if he was keeping it for more personal reason. He didn’t ask.

The family name Sasuke chose was the opposite of common. The Takedas were a scattered clan with branches living in Lightning, Sound and Waterfall. All who bore the name were excellent swordsmen and known for their kinjutsu. They were said to have descended from a man who split from the samurai. Only the Samurai themselves and the seven swordsmen of the mist were better known for their kinjutsu. He assured Kakashi he could pass as one the Takeda clan- that he had been… _trained_ in their kinjutsu by a couple members. Needing a specialized sword did indicate that he may know what he was talking about and did more than copy a limited number of techniques with this Sharingan. At least Kakashi hoped so.

Kakashi watched as Sasuke and Toshiko bent their heads together and went over the last details of the forging. He studied the teen before him while he was distracted. Uhei had described in detail what she found when she followed the little Uchiha from their time and it was making Kakashi take a second, longer, look at his charge. The boy, as described by Uhei, was a very thoroughly broken child. While the teen before him appeared competent enough, there were times when he seemed to be tightly wound and a hairs breadth from snapping. Today he was had less tension than he had the day before, however, Kakashi wasn’t completely sure if the exercise helped him release some of the tension or if he was just better at hiding it today. Did the little boy Uhei observe fully heal as he grew older or were their hidden cracks Kakashi had to watch out for? No, Kakashi was pretty sure he knew the answer to that, the real question how much of a danger was he to the Leaf.

As soon as Sasuke completed his business with Toshiko they left to go to Training Field Five. Kakashi thought again on his dogs’ reports.

The dogs wanted the kids. Bisuke was about to adopt the brat he was spying on (something was said about whelping beds and some not very nice things about ninja’s ability to raise offspring in general). Even Pakkun indicated that he wasn’t completely against the idea anymore, which said a lot (mostly about the girl’s ability to give out belly rubs) but still a lot as it was a complete turn-around from before. Uhei didn’t actually say anything, but she didn’t have to, her body language made it clear what she thought. Kakashi trusted his dogs implicitly. They saved his bacon more times than he could count. He’s known them since they were chubby puppies placed in his lap by Sarama. However, they were still dogs. They see emotionally distressed puppies and they want to comfort them. Kakashi would have to make a decision on whether he wanted to deal with everything that may come if he attempted to go the route they wanted.

One thoroughly broken child, one hanging on by his nails and a normal little kunoichi in training. Kakashi was pretty sure he didn’t want to deal with that mess.

Kakashi didn’t like kids, but if it was possible he may have to deal with them anyway... maybe getting an early start when they were a little more malleable would be helpful. Kakashi looked at the teen walking beside him. Not to mention seeing the little Uchiha may help him in figuring out his current charge .

 

***

 

“You are good with sealing techniques.”

Kakashi blinked away from his book, almost startled. This was the first thing Sasuke had said since they left the shop and went to training field 5. He again shed the mask as soon as they arrived then immediately began stretching. The last few hours the teen had been systematically moving through different styles of exercises one right after another without stop.

“I know some.” Kakashi replied. His sensei married into a clan who specialized in sealing techniques, he learned a number from him then learned even more when the man went on solo missions and Kushina was bored and spent the day teaching him others.

“I know advanced techniques, I can modify existing seals to an extent. But I am lacking in key areas I need to know more about.” Sasuke said without pausing from his most recent exercise. This one used a small amount of chakra as a reinforcement for balance. Kakashi had just watched him go through the same routine without chakra so he was certain he was using chakra merely to keep his chakra flowing rather than needing help with balance. It would help prevent delayed chakra distress.

“What are you wanting to seal?”

Sasuke didn’t reply to his question, instead he moved into another, more complex, exercise. This one, Kakashi could feel, didn’t use chakra. Watching him reminded Kakashi of their spar the day before. As Kakashi had told Sarutobi in their debriefing- if he hadn’t believed Sasuke’s story about being from the future before, he believed it whole heartedly now. Sasuke’s taijustus had a hint of Uchiha accents- about what one would expect of someone who lost their family a young age- it also had a little bit of something Kakashi didn’t recognize that was either unique to Sasuke or he learned outside of the village. The majority of Sasuke’s taijutu was very recognizably the techniques of the Leaf’s Blue Beast. Not only was it Gai’s taijutsu it was Gai’s taijutsu with an unmistakable Kakashi twist. Kakashi definitely taught this young man at some point.

It meant it was even more important that they got him his sword. Kakashi was sure he wouldn’t be the only one who could recognize it. He also doubted anyone would believe that Kakashi taught it to him and Sasuke was able to master it in such a short timeframe since they supposedly met.

Kakashi sensed the movement before the dog appeared beside a tree. Sasuke paused for a moment then continued. Kakashi wasn’t sure if that meant he recognized the dog or not, but it didn’t really matter. Guruko’s appearance meant that Kakashi’s job just became more difficult. Guruko would only come if Danzo returned to the Leaf from his latest diplomatic mission. Far be it for Kakashi to say insulting things about one of the Elders of the Leaf, but that man didn’t seem like he’d be that great at being a diplomat. To him Leaf was all and everyone else was Trash.

“My DNA.” Sasuke said suddenly then stopped and turned to face Kakashi. “Or Genes whichever way it needs to be put.”

Kakashi blinked at the random comment, then realized that he was replying to his earlier question.

“You want to seal your DNA?”

“Yes. There are ways to replicate DNA, the First Hokage’s for example, has been studied and used by multiple people. I would like to find a way to seal mine so when I die I stay dead in every sense of the word.”

Kakashi knew about some experiments using the First’s DNA- it was what Orochimaru was experimenting on that got him run out of the village. Kakashi wondered if Sasuke was worried about the Sharingan. If he were, he also wondered what it meant for Little Sasuke and himself. On the other hand, it would be interesting to watch him and see just what some of his skills were. Plus, if he got Sasuke busy studying it mean less chance him and Danzo stumbling across each other.

“I will see what I can do.”

 

***

 

The tap tap tap of his cane as he went down the stone stair case to the Root base pleased Danzo even though his arm still itched and ached from the new additions he had recently gained. The sound of his cane was rhythmic and not a fraction of a second out of beat. He was aging and his old body was getting stiffer with each decade, but the cane was all for show. He was still powerful enough and crafty enough that he didn’t need to be silent in his movements or fake strength to hide weakness.

Yes getting old was a pain in the ass and he didn’t bounce back as quickly has he once did, but other than the idle grumbling he did to his underlings and colleagues- which was an old man’s prerogative- his mind and body were still sharp. Sharp enough to quickly realize there was something afoot in the Village Hidden in the Leaves that he was not privy to at least. The Hokage and his pet ANBU were up to something. Somehow while he had been distracted with meddling in the world outside the village and recovering from his surgery he missed exactly what happened. It was unacceptable; the not knowing what is being hidden. However, he was satisfied that he was able sniff out that there was something going on so quickly.

Hiruzen was still being reticent toward him after that little Uchiha incident. Danzo hadn’t been too concerned about it. There was no doubt in his mind that the man would come around again. Once the repercussions settled he would accept that it was good and right. However, with this secrecy there might be a better opportunity lurking around the corner.

Danzo stopped in the middle of the room and two Root ANBU members knelt before him. “The Hokage is hiding something that concerns the ANBU and lightning country. Find out what and report back.”

Yes, Danzo decided, as the two masked men bowed and disappeared, this was a perfect opportunity. First he needed to find out what, exactly, Hiruzen was hiding. Then he needed to determine the best way to present the man’s underhandedness to the rest of the Elders and the council. Arouse suspicion and chip away a little more at the power the other man held. What an excellent turn of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I am unforgivably late with this chapter. I know that I am not a great writer, but I am amazed at how much I am learning as I work through this story. The lesson I learned with this chapter was Do Not Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Do Today! Throughout the previous chapters I have been cutting bits in pieces to fix the flow with the idea that “Oh, I’ll put them in later.” Well Later Happened. I couldn’t put off explaining anymore and it turned this chapter into an info dump. I wasn’t completely happy with it and held off on posting it- I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make it late a day or two while I poked at it a little more. Well… of course my computer decided to go Kaput the following Monday. It took me forever to get my new one. Luckily I didn’t lose too much when my computer went- just the latest draft of this chapter and having to completely rewrite it improved it by leaps and bounds. Sorry for the extremely late chapter!


	8. Hokage is mean to Shikaku, Bisuke adores his kid and Sasuke and Kakashi are boring

“So,” Shikaku said, voice as dry as it could _possibly_ get, “I am to help plot out how to hide a time-traveling ninja from the Elders and Village Counsel.”

“Hypothetically, of course.” Hiruzen said calmly from across the desk. This meeting began as one of their bi-weekly strategy talks until Hiruzen threw this strange scenario at him. Shikaku was suspicious.

“I surmise this has to do with Kakashi’s sudden time off and why I have been cornered twice this week by the Root ANBU fishing for information with vaguely alluded to questions?”

“Possibly.” Hiruzen replied with a straight face.

“It would be simpler if you would bring me in to the situation in the beginning so you wouldn’t be stuck trying to make others think you have a time-traveling ninja that you are hiding from the leaders of the village.” Shikaku muttered and wiped a hand over his face, he then cleared his throat, “Ah, so you said your ANBU brings home a ninja claiming to be from the future. You don’t trust this man doesn’t have ill intent and you have placed a guard on him. He is unaffiliated with any village so he is going through the ALS1095 process to become part of the Leaf which will allow you to keep a closer eye on him. In your _Hypothetical_ situation Kakashi is the guard?”

The Hokage inclined his head in as an affirmation.

“You already have a problem.” Shikaku leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “By making Kakashi the guard he is the defacto sponsor in the ALS1095 process since he is the one hanging around him all day. There is no way anyone will believe that Kakashi would volunteer to be a sponsor for someone wanting to become a Shinobi of the leaf.”

“It would be let known that Kakashi met the man during his latest string of missions…”

“Not a chance.” Shikaku replied, “Nice try, but being a sponsor is a pain in the ass. Being a sponsor for a ninja previously unaffiliated with any Hidden Village is a pain in the ass times ten. To want to put yourself through the headache and hassle you would really need to have bonded with the person you are sponsoring. Kakashi doesn’t even bond with people he has known and been friends with for over a decade. There is no way he’d bond with some random strange ninja he just met- especially not during a mission. Not to mention an ANBU team brought him home after strange circumstances, not Kakashi.”

Hiruzen heaved a sigh and picked up a scroll laying amongst the clutter on his desk and started rolling it between his hands. “I also decided that the story would fall apart after some scrutiny. What would be your suggestion to replace it?”

“Who is this time-traveling man? Other than someone who may not be totally friendly with the Leaf.”

“Sasuke Takeda is the name he would go under. Through in truth his name is Sasuke Uchiha.”

Shikaku mentally froze. Uchiha?

“It would be very difficult to fake the Uchiha bloodline.” He said slowly his brain spinning the new information and considering another path. It wouldn’t be the Sharingan that would make it tough, not all Uchihas awakened the powerful eye technique, but there were other traits that were dominate in the clan. Before the clan fell most Leaf denizens knew one when they saw one at a glance and it wasn’t just because they displayed their clan symbol with pride. Shikaku started to suspect- he shut down that line of thought for later and instead incorporated the information into his scenario.

“You should bring to the Elders that ANBU brought home a man in suspicious circumstances- the man asked for protection as he had heard of the Uchiha massacre. He is an illegitimate son of an Uchiha who sowed some wild oats. He had been hiding his paternity as his mother’s family had never joined a village and he did not want to be forced into one simply because his father came from a powerful bloodline. However, he is now concerned that it wasn’t hidden well enough as there has been Itachi sightings near where he lived. He is worried about his skin and would like the protection of a village. Your ANBU team saved his life and brought him back here. Leaf village is as good as any. There is a good chance that Itachi will not come back here and if he does the Leaf might be better equipped to deal with him than anyone else. The story released to the general population, if asked, is simply that Kakashi met Sasuke Takeda during a mission, as you said, and brought him home. People who know Kakashi will be suspicious, the ANBU team who brought him home will be suspicious because, truthfully, that is just completely unbelievable. However, I suspect that the story told to the Elders will be leaked, and if it isn’t you should find a way to leak it. The gossip mill is a powerful thing. Once the confidential information is out it will keep anyone from looking into it much further because they will feel that they already pried out the truth.”

“You would disclose that he is of Uchiha bloodline?” Hiruzen asked, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. Shikaku figured the thought probably never crossed his mind.

“It will be more of a problem getting people to believe that your ninja is a time-traveler than convince them he is not. In this hypothetical, if you did not reveal that he is an Uchiha and he awakens his Sharingan there would be questions on how he could hide his parentage from the leaders during the very thorough check of the ALS1095 process. There would be questions about the leadership's competence.” Likely lead by Danzo, but Shikaku didn’t add that. He was certain the Hokage had the same thought in mind.

“Yes, that makes sense. We cannot handicap him if he finds himself in a fight against enemies of the Leaf and we can’t handicap shinobi of the leaf with ignorance if they find themselves in a battle against him.” He shook his head, “I should have thought of this.”

This was sounding less and less hypothetical. Shikaku started to run possible scenarios in his head on what this was really about. But faking a time-travelling ninja? That was just odd. He was having trouble coming up with very many reasonable scenarios.

“The problem is the plausibility of an Uchiha clan member having illegitimate offspring.” Shikaku said, focusing the conversation on situation given to him and not on his thoughts. “My understanding is that the Uchiha kept very close tabs on all their offspring and it is very unlikely that any slipped through their fingers. Not to mention there are very few who could have had the opportunity as most of age would be incorporated into to the police force and not wandering the countryside. We would probably have to do some research.”

The Hokage’s hand stopped on the scroll he was holding and his eyes went distant for a moment before shaking his head minutely, “There is one. There may be others, but there is one who would probably be too perfect for your scenario. He would have been young…14 at the time, but that is old enough. It was a long term mission that went badly.” He looked away to a painted of a bird on the wall and his voice deepened- likely recalling the events as he spoke of them. Hokage was a position Shikaku never wanted be burdened with. Helping plot out scenarios and strategies were hard enough on his psyche, but the final decisions were made by the man before him and the results of each one rested solely and heavily on his shoulders.

“The team we sent to retrieve them arrived too late, they brought home the corpses. The leader who was still alive when they arrived did not survive the trip home. No one really knows what happened on that mission.”

Shikaku’s brows furrowed as something the Hokage said pinged his memory. It wasn’t often that a mission ended that badly so he would have likely heard about it, and if he hadn't he would have studied it when he took his position. Shikaku then realized that while he did read about it, the first time he heard about it wasn’t in preparation for his current position.

“The Riverbends Mission.” He said.

“Yes.”

“My great-uncle married into the Uchiha clan. Right after that mission failed my father mentioned that he was grateful that Uchiha bloodline rules required that Uncle Masato and his wife be assimilated into her clan and not our own. It was said that she was absolutely enraged about the failed mission and my father was glad it wasn’t his problem.”

“Miya and Masato were the boy’s guardians and raised him as a son alongside of their granddaughter. Miya was a force. She came from a long line of headstrong and hot tempered Uchiha females- only Mikoto broke from that tradition, though she was strong willed in quieter way. Miya was well known to the shinobi of my generation. She had a lot of respect for my father, though not much for me, I am afraid.”

“If someone dug deep enough they’d notice that we have two children raised by Miya Uchiha having children named Sasuke.”

“Miya passed the respect for my father on to Mikoto. Unfortunately I never really knew Kojin, but I expect those of us old enough to know Miya would expect she passed it on to him too.”

“How long was the mission?”

“Eleven months when we sent the retrieval team.”

Plenty of time for a boy and girl to fall into puppy love, name an unborn baby and admit to being an Uchiha before he died. Even well trained adult ninja could be caught by hormones if they were in one place too long and let their guard down. Hearing he was a young teenager you could add a touch of naivety to that potent mixture and it would be completely believable- even if he were an Uchiha.

“I see what you mean by too perfect, but I think it will work. If asked- though I don’t see why it would ever come up- have your time-travelling ninja say that his father passed before he was born, but his mother always said he named him. Unless he has a better idea. He is traveling from the future after all, shouldn’t he know how all this turns out?”

“No that kind of time-traveler, I am sure.” Hiruzen said with a shake of his head. “Thank you, Shikaku, I knew I could count on your genius to help me out. I lean on you heavily to keep Leaf safe.”

“What is this about?” Shikaku asked before he could stop himself. The answer, he was sure, would open a large can of worms he didn’t want to deal with. He had enough on his plate to keep from seeking out more.

Hiruzen chuckled the chagrined look that must have been all over his face after asking something he didn't want to know the answer to. Hiruzen rested the scroll he had been holding on the desk. Picking up a letter opener he quickly nicked the back of his wrist and let a drop of blood fall to the scroll.

“I would have explained even if you hadn’t asked. I need your strategic mind to work on this with me.” He did a series of hand seals above the scroll as he spoke. The scroll opened and a pile of scrolls poofed into existence. The Hokage then did another hand seal and ran a hand over all the scrolls. Unlocking them, Shikaku was sure, so he could read them.

When Hiruzen nodded at them Shikaku pulled one of the scrolls off the top. He flicked it open and frowned at what he read. He picked up another and skimmed it, then picked up a third. He recognized the tips that had been trickling into the intelligence and strategic planning divisions, but this…

“There are three options. You have someone better informed than the entire Leaf informant network. You have someone who has some kind of foretelling. Or you have someone from the future helping you. Whichever it is, they're writing it as if they are from the future.”

“You were correct.” Hokage crossed his arms over the desk and leaned forward. “The hypothetical situation isn’t so hypothetical.”

“Then what-?”

“My ANBU team found a time-traveling ninja.” It was said with absolutely sincerity and not a glimmer of amusement as if this were a joke.

Shikaku’s vaunted genius suddenly left him. He felt as though he were the dumbest person on the planet for a moment. “You believe this man who says he traveled through time and is from the future.”

“All evidence points to it being true. I will get you access to everything involved. Medical Reports, Kakashi’s reports, and of course, the answers to the questions I have asked of him that are now sitting in front of you.”

Shikaku wasn’t sure what to say.

“I am pushing the ALS1095 through. Once Med-nin Tae declares him well enough for interrogation, he will be sent to Inochi for the first step of the process.”

“Inochi will be able to verify that this time-traveler is not lying to us. Then Inochi will know everything that is going on as well. I trust Inochi implicitly, but the more people who know the less likely it will stay a secret.”

“Have Inochi report directly to you. I leave it up to you to make the determination if he should be read into the situation. I prefer not, if he does not learn the truth through interrogation.”

“Of course. I will keep you notified.”

“Good!” The Hokage said much more cheerfully, “I have a meeting with the Elders tonight to prepare for where I will present this to them. Thankfully your suggestion of revealing the Uchiha link has paved the way for me to start the conversation on getting Kakashi’s ban on being in contact with Minato’s son rescinded, as well. Two birds with one stone as it may be.”

Shikaku sighed and shook his head as looked at the pile of scrolls on Hiruzen’s desk. “And I suppose I got myself some reading to do.”

 

***

 

“Noodles!” Naruto cried and picked up the shaggy dog and gave him a hug, burying his face in the scruff of his neck. Bisuke hung awkwardly in the boy’s grip, but his winced was for new name. At least it wasn’t Ramen anymore, which what the kid was calling him the last time he saw him. Bisuke didn’t get to see the kid as much as he liked since Kakashi was working on getting the decree lifted. He had to be certain that no person at all could see him around Naruto at this time. There was too much risk that if people saw them now and then saw them together after the decree was lifted they might put two and two together. Technically they weren’t actually breaking any rules. The decree said that Kakashi couldn’t contact Naruto, not that his dogs couldn’t. However, it was doubtful anyone would be impressed with that line of reasoning so Bisuke was stuck trying to sneak in time. It took him all day to lure the kid out to somewhere no one was around the first time the kid skipped school and lost his ANBU guard.

 

“Look what I got for you!” He let Bisuke down and reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a bag of brightly colored cereal. Ooh Sugary Sweetness. Bisuke wagged his tail.

 

“Sit.” Bisuke sat and caught the round sugar and fruit flavored cereal tossed to him.

 

“Lay down.” Naruto said seriously pointing at the ground. Bisuke plopped down on his belly then happily gulped down the next piece of cereal given to him. This kid definitely knew the way to a dog’s heart.

 

“Roll over,” Biskuke watched amused as the kid made wild circular hand gestures and spun in a circle. When the kid stopped contorting himself in knot Bisuke rolled over so he could get the next tasty treat. They went through this every time they met. Bisuke was a fan of the treats and the strange signals the kid did. At least this time Naruto wasn’t rolling all over the ground to show him how it was done.

 

“Alright now, I know you can do this. You can get this one this time. I know it.”

 

Bisuke perked his ears up and wagged his tail.

 

“Noodles, Speak!” The boy said with a grand gesture, throwing his head back eyes closed and his arms wide.

 

Bisuke tilted his head to the side and kept wagging his tail. Naruto tilted his head back toward him a little and opened one eye in a squint. Bisuke kept wagging his tail. Naruto heaved a huge sigh and deflated. His posture drooping until he sat cross-legged in front of the dog. He propped his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands.

 

“You still can’t get it can you?” He said sadly. “When I say ‘speak’ you are supposed to go ‘Arf, Arf’.”

 

Naruto took a deep breath, “Noodles, Speak!”

 

Bisuke stayed silent, there was zero chance he was going to respond to that command.

 

“Noodles, Speak!” Naruto tried again and added “Arf, Arf, Arf.”

 

When Bisuke continued to be silent the boy tried it a few mores times then finally gave up. “It is okay, you might not be able to speak, but you are still the best and smartest dog ever.”

 

Eh, maybe someday he could show the kid he could speak just fine. However, Bisuke was not one to let a perfect opportunity like this to go and crawled halfway into Naruto’s lap to rolled over for some belly rubs. Naruto quickly obliged.

 

“I’m glad I found you, if I didn’t I’d be bored. I have to lay low for a while because that dumb shopkeeper told on me this morning. I switched all his signs around and mixed up his fruits and vegetables. It was hilarious, his face turned so red! He was too slow and fat to chase me and went straight to school and told on me so I got yelled at. But I don’t care. What was worse was that we were studying boring old history at school so I escaped when the teacher wasn’t looking. Playing with you is much more fun.”

 

Bisuke already knew the story. He already picked up a pattern of when the boy was going to skip by watching him in the morning. Getting yelled at by the teacher first thing in the morning upset the boy and he would almost always skip class afterward. Bisuke wasn’t sure if the ANBU didn’t pick up on the pattern because the one guarding was constantly being switched out or if it was because during school time he was the academy instructors’ problem so they ignored it. Either way, it meant he had the kid to himself. Good thing he didn’t have any nefarious purposes. At least not any that didn’t involve food.

 

“I already have a plan to get them both back.”

 

And anyway, the kid was already an evil genius in the making.

 

 

***

 

 

The scrolls were spread across the floor around the two ninja seated in the middle of Sasuke’s apartment. The tri-colored hound was laying outside in front of the door keeping a nose out for Danzo and Urushi, Kakashi’s unsociable large yellow dog, was curled up in a ball in the corner of the room keeping an eye on him and Sasuke. Shiba lay close to Urushi like a sphinx watching them carefully ready to hop up and fetch anything they needed that was out of reach.

The rest of Kakashi’s pack were at home, though there was a chance that Uhei had already left to wait for the little Uchiha in the old Uchiha complex and Bisuke was out waiting to see if Naruto was able to escape the prison he called school. The kid apparently skipped school way too much.

After Guruko joined them at the training field another dog joined them just about every day. Sasuke didn’t seem to mind them, in fact he mostly ignored them completely. Urushi approved of the stoic dark haired teenager. Urushi did not approve of very many people and he growled at anyone who tried to speak to him. Sasuke barely even looked at him much less tried talking to him- which perfectly explained Urushi’s approval of him.

“Blue ink,” Sasuke said brows furrowed, "will increase the stability. That seems…” he trailed off.

Kakashi considered it. “Blue could also lessen the reaction. Blue is tranquility. It can be too suppressive.”

“No wonder most people simply use black ink when creating seals.”

“All colors in one. It is all inclusive and not having to worry about shading? Yeah, it is much simpler to use black. Though possibly not as much precision as you might like.”

Amusingly enough, helping Sasuke study sealing techniques meant they went past the ‘advanced techniques’ and back to the basics. Academy students learned what basic seals where, how to recognize them and use them with only a few burgeoning ninja with steady hands being taught to copy simple seals exact. Kakashi was impressed Sasuke leaned how to reverse seals and do simple modifications without learning the very basics of seal creation. The basics were complex, often seemed contradictive, and didn’t always make a whole lot of sense.

“The Hyuuga may have made a mistake in using dark green for their seal.” Sasuke said thoughtfully.

“You know about it?”

“Mmm…heard about it. It has to be incredibly complex since it looks so simple. I wonder why they used dark green. The seal is a defense against the greed of men who wanted the Byakugan? Dark green represents ambition, greed, and jealousy. They’d have to be very careful that it wouldn’t overspill on the person who is wearing the seal. Which I imagine would not be something you would want to add when you are already oppressing said family members.”

“Probably not. There must be something in the make up of the seal determining why they had to use it. Or I suppose the one who created it was being passive aggressive and the ones who began implementing it didn’t know any better.”

Sasuke’s face softened in amusement at the comment. “If the seal was flexible enough, Aqua-green would have been best as it promotes Protection and Mental Healing.”

Help protect the eyes and helps them be happy with their oppression at the same time. _Clever_ , Kakashi thought. “Could have chosen a worse color- yellow-green promotes sickness, discord, cowardice and jealousy.”

Sasuke shook his head and looked around at the mess surrounding them. “Strange how learning the colors is the first step in learning to create sealing techniques when it is very rare to see colors used in seals at all.”

“The ink you choose to use is the very first step in creating a seal. You have to learn the utensils needed to create the seals before you can learn to create them from scratch. This is something that takes years to master, possibly decades.” Kakashi had learned a bit about colors, but as he never planned to create his own seals, he had moved on from them quickly. It was all coming back to him along with Kushina’s voice exasperatedly telling him to suck it up- that at least he got her awesome tutorials and didn’t have to suffer though that insufferable grannies lectures. He never did know who that insufferable granny was.

“I can see why it would take so long, when all this-” Sasuke gestured to the papers littering the floor with a bandage wrapped hand, “only covers the implications and possible effects colors you might use may have. Hopefully it won’t take me that long.”

Kakashi doubted it would. Sasuke had a shortcut by being able bypass the chore of rote memory by using his Sharingan on all the scrolls, they mostly only needed to discuss the intricate details so he could be sure he fully understood what he was reading and copying.

A low gruff bark from outside caught their attention. It wasn’t an alert, it was Guruko telling someone he knew to stay back and be respectful. Shiba sprang up from where he was watching and went to join his pack-mate outside. He quickly returned carrying a message in his mouth. He nimbly stepped around the scattered documents and gave Kakashi the message. “It was ANBU.”

Kakashi absently patted him and opened the message. Things were starting to move, it seemed.

“It appears we will have to put our studying on hold for a bit. The preliminary steps an ALS1095 applicant has to take are now in motion. Med-nin Tae will clear you physically, then you will have a visit with interrogation which will then be followed up by an interview with the Hokage.”

Kakashi bit his thumb and smeared blood across the message. A quick seal and a new message popped out and he turned it toward his charge.

“And before then we need to get your story straight.”

 

 


End file.
